Reflected In That Mirror
by Hiss13
Summary: Nothing is reflected in that mirror. Yet over time, a vague image forms... One day, Ichigo encounters a strange girl, surrounded by stranger circumstances. In a race against time to discover the truth and save her, just what will he find?
1. Image 1-Reflections in Flight

**Image 1-**

 **Reflections in Flight**

 **Part 1**

"Go, Shizuku."

The girl stared back with nothing but a blank look in her eyes. She did not understand. Why was he asking her to leave?

"Take the Garganta and escape to the world of the living. I've left you a spare gigai and an artificial soul near the exit."

The girl turned back to see a large, black gap in space-time behind her that seemed to be nothing but a void.

"It should be a straight path. You'll reach the exit and opening to the second Garganta if you don't meander."

"-"

"I wish to protect you, that is all."

"-"

"At this point, the real world is a better place for you than Soul Society."

"-"

"Word has already spread and the Gotei 13 has already started to act in order to prevent a massive upheaval. Central 46 will soon issue the kill order so just get out of here! I refuse to let them enact that twisted justice for the sake of maintaining the status quo. So, just go, Shizuku, and learn to finally live."

The sound of the device holding the Garganta open reverberated as Shizuku stared at the man without even saying a single world. She had nothing to say anymore. She no longer knew what she could say to the man.

She walked to the entrance of the Garganta and turned her head to face the man with her blank expression one last time. What she saw reflected in her eyes was simply a warm smile engraved on his face.

How could he even smile in such a situation? He would likely be murdered in a few short minutes. She knew these were all bad things. Yet…she could not even muster up the her strength to even show any emotions.

With her head half-turned to look back at the shinigami smiling in the face of inevitable death, she took one step into the Garganta. One step was followed by another and another…and as she continued to run forward, the mouth of the Garganta shut with her last sight of Soul Society being that smiling man's face.

* * *

 **Part 2**

"I've found you." The uninterested voice came from the strange girl who seemed to be standing blocking the path. In contrast to the indifferent expression seemingly plastered to her blue-eyed face, she seemed to be out of breath as she was hyperventilating through her nose. Despite the night-time breeze one would expect at the end of May, her body was drenched in sweat to the point where her white camisole and jeans were sticking to her slender body and her shoulder-length silver hair seemed to be completely disheveled.

"You've found me?" Kurosaki Ichigo raised an eyebrow while leaving the rest of his signature scowl in tact. He already had a long day at school and at work doing odd jobs for Ikumi. The fact that some strange girl was standing in front of him and blocking his way was definitely not a welcome sight. But, she seemed to be out of breath out of searching for him. At the very least, he did not want to be rude and just avoid her. With the hand that was not holding his bag, he scratched at the back of his head. "Why are you looking for me and who are you?"

"I merely sought the strongest reiatsu I could sense." The girl's breathing started to return to a normal rate as her shoulders slowly relaxed. "My name is Iroha Shizuku. I need-"

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▄▄"

The desperate cry and roar of a fallen spirit began to resound throughout the sleepy streets of Karakura Town. The two people on the street stiffened their muscles in immediate response as the terrible cry began to lead to the repeat and overlaying of multiple cries which slowly approached.

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▄▄"

"▂▂▃▄▃▄▅▄▅▄"

"▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅▄▄"

Ichigo immediately reached for the Shinigami Substitute Combat Pass, but as soon as he could tap it to his chest and separate from his body, he saw a Hollow falling straight from the sky straight towards-

"LOOK OUT!" In a single motion, he jumped and pushed Shizuku back, throwing her away by three meters before pulling out Zangetsu and stabbing it straight into the mask of the descending Hollow. As soon as the feeling of the blade piecing through the mask hit Ichigo's muscles, he smashed the edge of the blade down, bringing the Hollow along with it onto its back and breaking through the mask to the ground.

The Hollow started to disintegrate, allowing Ichigo to draw his blade back. "That was way too close. Are you alright…um…"

"Iroha Shizuku." Her prompt reply held neither worry nor fear. It was as undeniably listless as the voice she had when she first found Ichigo.

"Iroha-san…I really don't get you at all." Ichigo scratched his head again.

"You don't need to. I would just like to make my request."

"▂▂▃▄▃▄▅▄▅▄"

"Unfortunately, that will have to wait." Ichigo readied a stance. "I get that you're spiritually aware, but stay back. There seem to be a lot more, so I need to make sure you don't get caught in the crossfire."

As if on cue, various Hollows crawled up on the gates, telephone poles, and mailboxes within the vicinity.

"I can fight. Do not worry about protecting me." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of plastic with the word 'Chappy' written on its surface in a bold red font. "Just focus on eliminating all of the Hollows."

Without giving her even the second needed to take in the artificial soul, the group of at least ten Hollows immediately jumped straight towards the two. All Shizuku could understand was the large force exerted onto her back combined with a burning feeling before her body flew forward and hit the ground, leaving her consciousness to be wiped away only after hearing the sound of sword pressure cutting through flesh.

* * *

 **Part 3**

The sensation of cool air, flowing across her body, brought a wavering sense of consciousness to the sleeping girl. Shizuku's eyelids were heavy, but she was sure that she was at least half-awake. As she slowly opened her eyes, her senses started to function.

With the light of the sun finally reaching her eyes, Shizuku put a hand down onto the grass beneath her and forced herself to sit up.

 _Grass?_ She looked down at where she was sitting and sure enough, the was sitting with the butt of her red hakama planted firmly onto the grassy field beneath her. _Ah, right…I fell asleep after classes._

"Good morning, sleepy-head." Shizuku turned her head to see a wavy, black-haired student sitting with his legs crossed.

"Houki-kun…"

The boy closed his eyes and crossed his arms to gesture an X. "INCORRECT! Come on, Shizuku…how many times to have to ask you to call me by my given name or at least call me onii-chan? We've known each for too long for you to refer to me as Houki-kun." The boy held out his hands and started to wave them in tandem with each syllable. "Ma-mo-ru. Say it with me. Mamoru."

"Mamoru."

"Perfect…though why do I get the feeling you-"

"Houki-kun."

Mamoru sighed. "And there's the relapse. Breaking a record for shortest relapse time, are we?"

Shizuku pulled in her knees and rested the side of her head on them. She started straight into Mamoru's eyes. "Does it really make a difference?"

"Of course it does!" Mamoru jumped straight onto his feet. "It feels like there's a distance between us whenever you refer to me so formally." He got down onto one knee and put her face only a couple of centimeters away from her. "You're like a younger sister to me. Ever since we first met each other in the Rukongai…and ever since I took you in, I always believed that. So can you at least reciprocate that for me…?"

Shizuku stared back at Mamoru before turning her head to let it rest on her knees. She let go with her left hand and clutched at the sheath of the Zanpaktou sitting to her side.

Mamoru sighed and got back to his feet. "Well, I'll break through to you some day. Even if I've lost count of how many times I've repeated that to you…at the very least, I don't think you are a bottomless abyss." The boy placed his hand on her head and ruffled her hair. "So, I'll wait until then. No matter how long it takes."

Shizuku did not understand it. All she felt was an odd sensation in her mind and chest she could not understand.

"Come on, now. Don't look at me like you've seen some weird piece of art, Shizuku."

"What are you even doing here, anyway, Hou…Mamoru-kun?"

"Ah, that's right! Get your zanpakutou. It's almost time for class!" Mamoru grabbed at her right hand and stood her up before running with her in hand. Shizuku, having tightened her grip on her sword, followed suit.

"See…? It isn't that hard…" Shizuku could swear she heard him muttering those words as they ran hand-in-hand to class.

* * *

 **Part 4**

Shizuku's eyelids started to crack open as her hazy consciousness began to solidify. As far as she could tell, she was in a room with a dim light. She felt the comfortable feeling of a bed on her back and a loose piece of clothing laying on her chest. She slowly put herself into a sitting position and noticed as a blazer fell off her chest onto her lap. "Ahh…what…"

"Ah. You're awake!" Shizuku's attempt to question the surroundings was interrupted by the voice of another girl sitting next to the bed with a book closed around a tilted and half-out bookmark. She was a teenager with long, wavy, burnt orange hair, brown eyes, and a curvaceous figure hidden underneath her sweater and dress. Shizuku went wide-eyed as the big-breasted girl put her face close to her own. "Mmm-hmm." She crossed her arms and nodded with an oddly serious expression on her face before leaning back onto the chair she was sitting on and loosening her facial muscles into a smile. "…and you're alright, too. That's a relief. I was a bit shocked when Kurosaki-kun called me saying he needed my Sōten Kisshun to save someone but your back wounds weren't too serious. He was even carrying you to me."

"Kurosaki…?" Shizuku's eyes returned to normal, bringing forth her regular listless expression, and she tilted her head. "Who…?…and who are you?"

"Ah, I guess I never did introduce myself, Shizuku-chan." The girl put her hand on her chest and gave a welcoming smile. "My name is Inuoe Orihime. I guess you can say I'm the person who healed your back injuries."

"How do you know my name…and who is this Kurosaki person?"

"…Kurosaki-kun told me your name. He said you introduced yourself to him before those Hollows appeared-"

"So, Kurosaki is that guy's name?"

"Mm-hmm. Can you wait here for a second? I'll go get him." Orihime put the book she had in her lap down onto the dresser next to her chair.

"…" Shizuku nodded without a word.

"Do you not like talking too much?" Orihime got up off the chair as she asked.

"It's…not necessary. Talking too much is…superfluous."

"That's too sad."

"Sadness…I can't even muster up the effort to feel something like that. Sadness. Happiness. It's all unnecessary." At that moment, she felt her cheeks being stretched.

"Nooooooo. That's a bad girl." Orihime was stretching Shizuki's cheeks while wearing an exaggerated pout on her face. "You shouldn't say that. That's just not right."

"Owowowow."

"Ah! I'm sorry." Orihime retracted her hands, her mouth agape in surprise. She then reached her arms around Shizuku and embraced her. "Then tell me, how does this feel?"

"It's…warm…"

"It is. Do you not like that?"

"Between like and dislike…neither…but…something is telling me to make sure you do not let go..."

Orihime pulled away and looked into Shizuku's eyes. "That kind of thing is a heart. That desire to connect to another and the desire to share emotions with another. It's the greatest proof that you're alive! You can't say that kind of thing is meaningless, alright?" She even had her fists clenched right in front of her as if she was trying to psych herself up. For some reason she was hell bent on getting this through to Shizuku.

"I will try not to." With that, Orihime's muscles seemingly relaxed all at once as her determination transformed into a beaming smile.

"Alright then. I'm going to get Kurosaki-kun so stay put." She said before hurrying off to the door and heading out to loudly call out for Kurosaki.

 _Her blood kept rushing to her face whenever she mentioned this 'Kurosaki-kun'. Is that also because of the heart?_

* * *

 **Part 5**

"Are you feeling alright? The Hollow that attacked you left a pretty bad cut on your back." The orange-haired boy with a scowl was sitting next to the girl from earlier.

"I am feeling better." Shizuku gave a small bow. "Thank you."

As Shizuku looked to the boy, she noticed him turning his head to the side in a desperate attempt to avert his eyes. "It's alright. Orihime was the one who did the healing work so it's her you should be thanking and not me."

"Thank you, Inoue-san. But, Kurosaki-san…you did protect me from those Hollows. As such, I do owe you a debt of gratitude as well."

"Fine, fine. You can thank me by sitting up straight!" Ichigo exclaimed.

The quizzical Shizuku turned her head to see Orihime blushing and stifling an awkward laugh. "Your shirt. Apparently, the back was damaged by a hollow and…"

Shizuku looked down to see her camisole hanging down much like an apron, leaving a majority of her back bare. "Ah." She stood back up and methodically tied the now open back of her camisole at the top and the bottom. "Did you like what you saw?"

"Are you really trying to tease me in that monotone voice?" Kurosaki's scowl only seemed to intensify.

"Mamoru-kun told me to learn to finally live…is sharing emotions like through teasing…not a form of living?" Shizuku sat back down on the bed, watching the boy's face shift into an expression of pure bewilderment.

"You're an odd one…I really don't get you."

"I get told that a fair amount…" Shizuku stared back as the Inoue and Kurosaki sat there, mute, with no response or rebuttal. A few moments of silence passed.

"Haaa," Kurosaki sighed and relaxed. "Well, I guess I should introduce myself since you already made your own introduction earlier. I am Kurosaki Ichigo, a Shinigami Substitute. It's nice to meet you, Iroha Shizuku."

"A Shinigami Substitute…does that mean you report back to the Seireitei?"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. While he was fully aware that most shinigami did not even know of the existence of the Shinigami Substitute, what Shizuku had asked was definitely not the first question he had expected to hear. "Not really. Despite the fancy title, I generally act independently of the Shinigami in the Seireitei. Why would you ask that, of all things, first?"

"I…" Shizuku looked down at her knees and then into Ichigo's eyes. "As of a few hours ago, I have become a fugitive from the Gotei 13."

"For what reason?"

"I don't know…"

"You don't even know why you've run away?"

"Mamoru-kun said that Central 46 wanted to execute me in order to maintain the status quo. Apparently, my existence will cause a massive upheaval. At least that's what he told me before he sent me here through the Garganta."

"Eliminating someone simply because of their existence…" Ichigo clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Such a thing was definitely not unheard of. For example, Rukia's execution. For example, the pair of Shinigami Substitutes. Even beyond those, there were likely many cases he was unaware of.

"But, why did you seek Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime spoke up in Ichigo's silence.

"I was seeking out the highest reiatsu in the near vicinity and I came across you. I seek help to save Mamoru-kun."

"This was the guy who sent you here, right?" Ichigo broke his silence and Shizuku nodded in response. "Are you sure he's even alive?"

"He was in a rush to get me out of the Seireitei but it's likely that he had enough time to cover his tracks and make his own escape."

"But, he's likely going to be labelled a fugitive because he assisted your escape."

"I do not want to see him die because he tried to save me. He told me to start living my own life but…" She clutched at the knees of her pants. "I will not say that I cannot live without him…but I do not want to live without him."

Ichigo stood up and walked up to Shizuku. "How long do you think he will be able to last on his own?"

"He knows how to keep an iron defense so, I would estimate about three days."

"Then, we have a fair amount of time." Ichigo smiled. "So, right now, you should focus on getting some rest and we can make our plan of action when you're finally more active."

"So you'll help me?"

"Of course I will." Ichigo spat out. "So, don't ask a meaningless question like that again. I'm not just going to deny someone asking for help like that. Actually…your friend told you to live your own life, right?"

Shizuku nodded.

"Then come down and eat dinner with my family. It would be a far better idea than sitting up here on your own, alright? You too, Inoue."

"Ah!" Orihime bounced out of her chair with a luminescent blush on her face. "A-Are you sure about this, Kurosaki-kun? I mean I really don't want to impose-"

"I said it's fine. Besides, I dragged you away from your own place so offering you dinner is the least I could do. Besides, I'm sure Yuzu and dad would be thrilled to have some new people sitting at the dinner table. So, come on."

As Ichigo walked through the door, Orihime hurriedly followed suit leaving Shizuku to be the last to exit.

* * *

 **Part 6**

"Are you sure you don't want to stay over or at least let me walk you home, Inoue?" Ichigo and Shizuku stood in the doorway, watching as Orihime had started to make her way out of the house.

"I'm not a klutz, you know." Orihime placed her hands at her hips and gave a deep pout. "I can take care of myself. Besides, you need someone to bring some fresh clothes for Shizuku-chan that are actually her size."

"Make sure you get home safely, then." Ichigo let his mouth curve into a slight, albeit evident, smile.

"I'll see you in the morning, Kurosaki-kun." Orihime gave a quick bow before heading off onto the road.

With Orihime finally vanishing into the night, Shizuku spoke up. "She's much calmer than she was at the dinner table."

Ichigo looked to Shizuku who continued to stare out towards the road in front of her. "She's probably not used to eating dinner with a large family like that. She's been living alone so the most she's ever had with her is Tatsuki coming to eat with her."

Shizuku let his words bounce around in her head. Large family? Was that really it? "I have my doubts."

A confused Ichigo continued his aimless stare. "Why do you say that?"

Shizuku turned her head to look at him with a face of confusion that mirrored his own. She turned back to face the empty road outside the doorway. "Maybe I do not understand the 'heart' as much as I thought I did."

Ichigo could only continue to ponder what she was trying to say. The two stood without a word in the doorway for two minutes while Ichigo struggled to find a way to break the awkward and drawn out silence until…

"Well, then, Iroha-"

"Just call me Shizuku."

"O-okay, Shizuku…" Ichigo's voice trailed off as he let the sound of him referring to the girl by her given name. He shook his head and turned around to head back to the stairs. "Let's just get you back to the guest bedroom so you can rest."

"Are you really willing to accept the burden of letting me stay here?" Shizuku turned around and started to follow Ichigo.

"What is it with everyone and trying to question my offers today…?" Ichigo's default scowl made its gallant return to his face. "It's not like you have anywhere else to go, after all. Besides, you saw how ecstatic Yuzu and my old man were to have someone else staying with them."

"Your other sister was not as enthused. In fact, she had the same scowl you have right now."

Ichigo turned his head to the side to look at Shizuku who now stood a couple of feet behind him at the base of the stairs. "You really shouldn't worry about it. Karin may give that front but she's not the type to even think of another person as a burden. Though…"

Ichigo reached out and pulled a plastic tube from one of his pockets. He gave an annoyed look at the thing and then tossed it to Shizuku. She took a half-step and reached out before it landed onto her palm. It was her Chappy Artificial Soul. "If you really feel that you are a burden and can find somewhere else, I won't stop you."

Shizuku stared at the dispenser. She could leave. She did not need to be a burden anymore to Ichigo than she already had been. It was better for him to not associate with someone as empty as her.

Yet why had she decided to put the dispenser away, then?

She, herself, was probably the one who knew least.

* * *

 **Part 7**

A calm sun shone over the skies of Karakura Town on that brisk late-May morning. The chilly wind passed through Orihime's hair as she stood in front of the front entrance to the Kurosaki household. In one hand was a bag filled with a fresh set of her own clothes. She inched a finger over to the door bell until she had stopped right in front of it.

 _I know I said I'd be back here today but…_

Her face was dyed with a deep red blush. Her finger moved back from and forth towards the bell as she struggled to beat down the embarrassment causing her hesitation.

 _I've been invited to Kurosaki-kun's house again. I know it's just to get Shizuku the new clothes but…_

"DAMMIT, SHIZUKU! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

*ding* *dong*

Before Orihime knew it, her hand had accidentally hit the button and the bell rung. _EHHH?!_

"AH! JUST GO BACK INTO THE BATHROOM! I'LL BRING INOUE OVER TO YOU!" Ichigo's words almost seemed to get louder as time went forward.

 _Shizuku's naked? In front of Kurosaki-kun?!_ Orihime's blush deepened at that thought. That there was a girl naked in front of Ichigo and it was happening right in front of her. She knocked at her head twice in an attempt to calm herself down. _Agh. I'm here to bring Shizuku some clothes to work with. As soon as I give her the clothes, this should all come to an end!_

The door in front of her swung open. "Are you alright, Inoue? You look like you might have a fever."

"Ah!" The startled girl jumped back a half-step. "N-No! I'm fine! I, uh…I brought some clothes for Shizu-"

"That's right. Come on inside." Ichigo moved aside as he let Orihime walk in and switch into some indoor slippers. In an instant, Ichigo closed the door and pushed Orihime from the back.

"W-Why are we rushi-" The two walked at a brisk pace.

"Yuzu got Shizuku to take a shower before you came here…but she made her do it too early and now she has no clothes."

Orihime's mind drew a complete blank. She failed to fathom why anyone would be willing to walk around in anyone else's house completely naked. "Huh?" Her already apparent blush problem only worsened with every passing second.

"Just get in there and make her put some clothes on." Orihime could only see an even deeper shade of red pained onto Ichigo's face before he finally opened the door, pushed her into the bathroom…

"W-Wait!" Orihime pivoted about her feet and turned around to the door in time for her to see it shut.

Orihime looked at the door for a few seconds.

With her embarrassment finally being overwritten with confusion, she turned back around. Sure enough, Shizuku was standing right there in front of her. The ends of her shoulder-length hair were still wet and there were patches of water on various points of her body, only partially covered by a towel that clung to her slender form.

"Oh, it's you, Inoue-san." The girl stared at Orihime with a vacant expression.

"Shizuku-chan?"

"Yes?"

Orihime inhaled and exhaled. "A maiden like you can't just walk around naked like that! Don't you feel any sense of embarrassment?! I mean…"

Orihime's long lecture commenced while the water on Shizuku's skin continued to slowly evaporate.

* * *

 **Part 8**

"Yes, I have received word from the Seireitei of fugitives." Urahara Kisuke closed his usual fan while sitting at his regular spot at the table, opposite to Orihime, Ichigo, and Shizuku. He took a small sip of the tea that Tessai had left at the table, watching the others.

"Fugitives…?" Shizuku muttered. The fact that he had said that meant that the Seireitei was not only after her. That meant that he had to be… "The name of the other fugitive-"

"It's Houki Mamoru. From what I understand, he's the one who helped you escape the Seireitei."

"So, he evaded capture." Shizuku could feel as if a small weight had been lifted from her chest. It was as if a worry that had been plaguing her since her flight from the Seireitei had been finally dissipated.

Worry…? Was that what she could define as worry? Why would she even have been worried?

Her eyes followed her hand which trembled as it moved to the center of her chest. Towards that part of her body that birthed so many contradictions in the human soul. She looked back to Ichigo and Orihime before she reached out of the cup of tea sitting on the table.

She sipped at the tea, allowing a nostalgic scent and feeling to seep into her.

"So, that means he has less than three days, according to Shizuku." Ichigo broke the silence. There was an air of relief around both him and Orihime as he made that declaration. They had time to prepare and possibly negotiate with Soul Society.

"Unfortunately, I think you're overestimating how well one could stay hidden from the Seireitei's watch. The Onmitsukido are by no means slouches." Urahara's eyes narrowed, his words bearing more and more bad news. "You likely don't have much time until the Gotei 13 traces your trail to this town considering they're investigating the Garganta you went through."

The feeling that had dissipated from Shizuku not even a few minutes before once again grabbed at her heart and pulled it down. It was a simple, sinking feeling that threatened to consume all rational thought. Shizuku could not put a finger on the name but she was certain there was no way it could be called worry.

"But, Mamoru-kun has the ultimate defense. There's no way that he could be captured quickly!" The monotone that had long since been maintained in her voice was starting to break down. She wanted to push down that feeling. It was unpleasant. It was far too unpleasant.

"Defenses can be easily whittled down." Urahara continued to speak in a matter-of-fact tone. He neither wavered nor attempted to sugar-coat reality for Shizuku. "The stronger the defense, the more force that can be held as necessary to whittle it down. Regardless of how hard he tries, a shinigami who has yet to achieve Bankai will eventually fall to one who has."

Bankai. Shizuku pressed the palm of her hand onto her forehead at the sound of that word. She pressed and pressed to mitigate a small pain emanating from that very point in her body.

"Then, how much time do you think we have left?"

"If your defeat conditions are Iroha-san or Houki-san being caught…I'd say you have until the end of today at the very best. Which means that you'd need to move as quickly as possible to prevent the situation from becoming irreparable."

"That's not a lot of time…"

"It isn't. So, that brings me to the important question, Ichigo. What is it you want and plan to do?"

"I want to negotiate with the Gotei 13 to suspend Shizuku's kill order."

"That will likely be difficult. If Central 46 has given the kill order then, it's highly unlikely that it will be suspended."

Ichigo slammed a hand on the table, showing off a scowl and a furrowed brow. "But, couldn't we just go through Rukia and-?"

"It's not a matter of who's making the appeal. It's who you're appealing to."

Ichigo's eyes widened. "You can't be serious…"

"I guess you never did get an explanation about Central 46. So, here's the short explanation. Central 46 acts as the Seireitei's judicial body and its orders are absolute. Their verdicts cannot be overturned for any reason. Take Rukia's execution and the orders to speed them up. At the time, those were believed to be from Central 46 until Aizen had revealed his own actions." Urahara took another sip of his tea. "Those orders were impossible to redact until Aizen made his move. Basically, negotiation is a fool's errand once Central 46 has made their verdict."

"Dammit!" Ichigo cursed as he slammed his fist on the ground he sat on. "If we can't even negotiate, then what the hell's left?!"

"'Central 46 will soon issue the kill order so just get out of here! I refuse to let them enact that twisted justice for the sake of maintaining the status quo.'" Shizuku suddenly spoke in her usual monotone, as if dictating something she had read.

Urahara raised an eyebrow. "Will soon issue a kill order…?"

"It was something Mamoru-kun had said to me before I escaped."

"So, he anticipated an incoming verdict and got you out of the Seireitei before the hearing could happen. It's likely that the Seireitei has been thrown out of order and is trying to find you two in order to start proceedings. In that case, negotiation may not be such a far-fetched possibility."

"The situation is even more advantageous to us, then. Central 46 wants to execute me to maintain the status quo. That means my very existence is dangerous enough for Soul Society to be worried. In other words, my freedom and safety can be used as a bargaining chip to open up negotiations."

Ichigo and Orihime immediately snapped their heads to face Shizuku who showed nothing but a steadfast look on her face behind the hand that still clutched her head. "You can't just offer yourself as a bargaining chip, Shizuku!" Orihime was the first to rebut.

"We're not going to do this that-"

"This isn't just about me…" Her tone of voice had grown firm. Whether or not she had realized this, she had some ground to stand on. "We need to exonerate Mamoru-kun…and I don't want to put you all in danger to do that..."

"Well, you guys should take some time to discuss the negotiation strategy." Urahara stood up. "I'll go ready the Senkaimon and the Reishi Henkan-ki. It will take a couple of hours to get the latter up and running since we haven't used it in two years so you'd best use that time to figure out that plan of action."

Shizuku immediately got up and gave a bow. "Thank you for your help, Urahara-san."

"You can thank me after you've succeeded, young lady. Alright?"

She stood back upright, but before she could nod, she felt a strong pain that felt like a crack propagating from her head. She grabbed at her head again but she could not suppress the pain. Her mind started spinning until she eventually fell to the floor.

"Shizuku!" She could hear the others in the room calling out to her as her consciousness slipped away.

* * *

 **Part 9**

Ichigo sat alone in the room with the tea table. Urahara had left to prepare the Reishi Henkan-ki to allow Orihime's passage through the Senkaimon while Orihime had gone to place the unconscious Shizuku somewhere to rest.

All he could do was ponder what the next step was. Despite Shizuku's uncharacteristic vehemence, she was against using her existence as a bargaining chip to negotiate. Even if they were negotiating to save the lives of two people, he could not help but feel disgusted at the prospect of gambling someone else's life like it was a raise on the poker table.

"There has to be a better way to do this." Ichigo sighed. "I didn't regain my shinigami abilities just so I could gamble the life of another so easily."

Ichigo heard the sound of the shoji behind him opening up and saw Orihime walking out of it. She closed it behind her and took a seat next to Ichigo.

"How is she doing, Inoue?"

"She's definitely not in any danger, from what I see."

"That's a relief."

"I want to say that she hasn't gotten enough rest, but…" Orihime looked down at the floors. "I really don't know why she lost consciousness like that. I tried healing her but there's not much I can reject when I don't even know the cause."

Ichigo was certain he heard a tinge of regret coming from her voice. There was nothing that either of them could do aside from wait for Urahara to make his preparations and for Shizuku to wake up.

"The best thing we can do is figure out what to do next." Ichigo spoke up while looking away from Orihime. He put a hand on top of her head. "So, don't be too hard on yourself. You did what you could. So, let's focus right now on making sure that we can prevent an execution."

Orihime nodded in response. There was a small blush on her face but she seemed to be much more composed than usual, sporting a simple yet genuine smile that overshadowed the red on her cheeks.

"Right now, the best possible thing to do would be to get in contact with Rukia." Ichigo turned to look straight back to Orihime and took his hand off.

"You're thinking of using Rukia's position as a representative of the Kuchiki Clan?"

"That and her position as a Vice-Captain of the Thirteenth Squad." Ichigo crossed his arms. "We might be able to convince Ukitake-san to assist in negotiating for Shizuku's safety and we might also be able to string…Byakuya..on…" Ichigo trailed off realizing the low prospects of getting Byakuya's help in this kind of situation.

"That probably won't work…" Orihime seconded his suspicions.

Ichigo sighed. "Well, if all goes well, we might be able to get Ukitake-san to gain some leverage."

"Actually…which squad is Shizuku from?"

Both of them stared at each other as they realized that neither of them had received an answer as to which squad she was from.

"It would probably be useful if we knew which squad she came from."

"Yeah…" Orihime got up onto her feet and walked to the shoji. "I'll go find Urahara-san, then. He might know."

Ichigo nodded before she made her way to the back to find Urahara.

Before he could sit and fall back into thought again, the sound of a shoji opening in the distance reached his ear. Most likely, it was someone entering through the front of the shop. He got up and slid the shoji connecting the room he was in to the main shop area enough so that he could see who had entered.

"Welcome to the Urahara Shop." Ichigo saw Tessai running out to greet the person who had recently entered the store. "How may we help you?"

"Kuchiki-san told me to head here to meet the owner of the shop as there is some information I need to get from him." He could not get a good look at who the owner of the voice was. All he could tell was that it was a familiar female voice and that it did not belong to Rukia.

"Kisuke is currently busy so, it will take some time for him to meet you but I can let him know that you're here." Tessai then pointed to the shoji Ichigo was peeking through. "If you'd like, I can lead you to the back room and you can wait there while I inform him."

Ichigo silently closed the shoji before he backed off and sat down next to the coffee table. Within a few seconds, the shoji had opened with a familiar face standing in the entrance. She was a girl who was slightly taller than Rukia with a bob haircut and a hairpin on the left side of her head. She wore a striped sweater reminiscent of Neapolitan ice cream, and a pair of loose cream-colored pants tucked into a pair of black leather boots. It was someone who he had not seem since the fight against Aizen when she was impaled by Toshiro, under Kyouka Suigetsu's influence.

"You're…Kurosaki-san, right?" The girl had spoken up first.

"Yes. That's me. And you are…." His first instinct was to say "the shinigami who was stabbed by Toshiro" but he immediately stopped himself. He had realized that he never spoke to this girl before.

"Hinamori Momo, the Vice-Captain of the Fifth Division." She took a seat across from him. "I don't think we have ever talked to each other."

"I shall leave you two here and go let Kisuke know of your arrival, then." Tessai said before heading off to the back where Shizuku was sleeping.

"So, what exactly are you doing in Karakura Town, Hinamori-san? I didn't think a Lieutenant would come all the way here."

"I was tasked with chasing after a pair of dangerous fugitive shinigami who we feel may have escaped to this town." Ichigo's stomach churned as soon as he realized exactly who she was talking about. "Actually, Kuchiki-san told me to give you the details if I made contact with you."

She placed a hand inside her sweater and pulled out two pictures from what was likely a pocket on her shirt and laid the two pieces of paper in front of Ichigo. One was a young make shinigami with wavy black hair and black eyes. The other was of the very shinigami sleeping in the adjacent room. Momo pointed to the latter first. "The first is fifth seat of the thirteenth division, Iroha Shizuku. She was taken away from an escort squad on the way to a hearing at Central 46 and disappeared shortly afterwards. We think she escaped via a Garganta opened up by-" She then pointed to the second picture. "This man, eighth seat of the twelfth division, Houki Mamoru. How he was able to do so is currently unknown but the location where the Garganta was opened was found to be empty after it was forced into."

"So, both of these shinigami are on the loose and you are basically acting on a hunch."

"When you put it that way, it sounds like a poorly thought out decision." Momo seemed like she was ready to pout. "Anyway, we were ordered to restrain and bring them back to the Soul Society for a proper trial."

"We?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "There are others who were sent here?"

"I was sent with Abarai-san to do the search. He said he knew his way around the town much better than I did so he started to search on his own."

"What exactly did these two do?" Ichigo could only feel more and more suspicion towards the orders that these shinigami had been given. "Isn't sending two vice-captains out for this kind of search and capture mission overkill."

"Honestly, the higher ups haven't given any information. All they mentioned was to watch out for Fifth Seat Iroha's B-"

Momo's statement was immediately interrupted by the loud noise of the shoji being forcefully opened by Orihime in a panic. "Kurosaki-kun! Shizuku's gone missing!"

Both Ichigo and Momo immediately stood up in response. Ichigo rushed to the opening of the shoji and saw an empty futon with its blanket pulled off and a window opened. Sure enough, Shizuku was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

 **Interlude I**

Shizuku counted the second time she woke up in an unfamiliar location. Having that happen a second time in two days was likely not a good sign.

Though, calling the room unfamiliar was likely a rush to judgement. She could see a shoji a few feet away and could even hear Ichigo speaking.

"Yes. That's me. And you are…?"

That was definitely his voice. Shizuku figured she was still in the Urahara Shop and that the others had moved her after she had fallen unconscious. But, she needed to figure out plans on how to negotiate for Mamoru's life. She had to get up and-

 _"Hinamori Momo, the Vice-Captain of the Fifth Division…I don't think we have ever talked to each other."_

In that moment, Shizuku felt like her heart was covered in the prickly sensation of thorns before it dropped straight to her stomach. If the girl were the type to have held onto any hope that she could avoid being caught before the day was up, the sound of one of the Vice-Captains of the Gotei 13 was chasing after would be enough to throw that away. It also meant that if she used him any further, she would risk putting him into the position of an enemy of the Seireitei.

"I shall leave you two here and go let Kisuke know of your arrival, then."

Shizuku heard another man speaking and walking to the door so she closed her eyes and pretended to remain unconscious as she listened to what Ichigo and Hinamori were saying grasping at the vague possibility that she may actually not be searching for her.

However, as Tessai exited to go underground and was out of Shizuku's current room, even that possibility had slipped away.

 _"I was tasked with chasing after a pair of dangerous fugitive shinigami who we feel may have escaped to this town."_

Shizuku wasted no time in getting up out of her futon. She would not be a burden on Ichigo and Orihime.

She picked up her shoes and walked to a window, which she opened and jumped out of. She would remove herself as a burden to Ichigo and Orihime.

"I'm sorry. Kurosaki. Orihime."

She put on her shoes as she started to make a break for the main entrance. Seeing as a Vice-Captain, herself, was at the store, it was unlikely that any other personnel would be in the immediate vicinity. So, she continued to run. At random points, she would make various turns.

She just needed to get as far away as possible. Someone as empty as her needed not put kind strangers into a dangerous position for her own sake.

After all, she had already done so to Mamoru. After about five minutes of running she had finally stopped. She was standing in a residential area and had no clue where she was. It was just some random location. So, the chances of Ichigo finding her again would be slim. The chances of her getting him involved were so slim.

"I've found you." A male voice echoed from behind her. She turned around to see a shinigami with pineapple-shaped red hair, a bandanna partially covering tattoos on his forehead and eyebrows, and an arm-plate with a camellia emblem and '六' emblazoned on it. "Thirteenth Division, Fifth Seat Iroha Shizuku. I'm here to take you into custody."

* * *

 **A/N: With that, I have the first chapter of a little short-fic completely uploaded. Chapters should be uploaded on a weekly basis, much like the manga, so expect the next one around the same time this week. I hope you enjoy~**


	2. Image 2-Cracking Phantom Mirror

**Image 2-**

 **Cracking Phantom Mirror**

 **Part 1**

Before Shizuku stood Abarai Renji, Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division. The distance was five meters. "If you come with me without resistance, we can make this process a lot easier for the both of us."

Shizuku looked towards Renji as she reached into her pocket and pulled a small plastic tube out. "And what if I refuse?" She retorted in her usual monotone. Shizuku had no intention of complying. Even if she was facing a Vice-Captain, she still had a goal she needed to achieve and she knew she would have no way of achieving it in custody.

"I'll be taking you into custody no matter what." Renji seemed to be visibly irritated as he furrowed his brow to the point where distortions were visible on the tattoo on his forehead. "It's just a matter of whether you can come with me uninjured or unconscious. It's your choice."

She had one goal. She would see that goal to the end no matter how damaged she would get in the process. She may not have ever felt like she had a defined identity or heart. But for once, she could say that heart desired to move her somewhere and she would not let anything get in the way of that new feeling. With an unwavering resolve, she pushed the button on the dispenser in her hand and let a round candy fly into her mouth.

"Dammit!" Renji, realizing exactly what she was doing, lunged straight towards Shizuku ready to slice. However, he was a half-step too late. The silver-haired shinigami split out of the Gigai and grabbed at her zanpakutou and caught Renji's blade with the side of her own, holding the blade with her left and the hilt with her right.

"Go, Chappy. Keep Kurosaki as far away from here as possible and make sure he doesn't get involved." She gave out a single order with a firm tone as she stood in stalemate with Renji's blade pressing down.

"Understood, pyon." Chappy, now resting firmly in Shizuku's Gigai gave a salute before taking off.

"Wait, Kurosaki?" Renji's blade lightened at a single moment of confusion, leaving Shizuku a single opportune moment she refused to miss. She pivoted about her left leg and tilted the blade up to allow Renji's blade to fall and slam against Shizuku's guard. The girl immediately tilted her blade to point towards Renji and charged forward, aiming to pierce into his chest.

But Renji regained his bearings before jumping back and evading the blade by a hair's breadth. Yet, even as the slash missed, Shizuku pressed forward, aiming at a wide variety of angles Renji could not help but consider unorthodox.

He could easily bat away slashes as necessary. The trouble came with predicting where the next slash would come from as there was no fixed pattern.

Slash after slash was pouring in as Renji had zero time to break out of Shizuku's rhythm and strike back.

Finally, one slash eventually made contact. The cut it made was shallow. It was nothing for someone like Renji to worry about. But, they became more and more frequent. The intervals between the successful strikes shortened until she would be able to hit successfully with every other strike.

She would whittle down his strength until he could not fight back.

"You're not even going to let me have an inch, are you?" He tried to ask the now silent Shizuku. But, she continued to press forward.

"Fine, then." Renji would not last if this kept continuing. He observed as her next slash would come in and cut him and drew his blade back and aimed to slam at the back of her blade. He leaned in, allowing Shizuku's blade to make a deeper cut than the previous ones and slammed down, knocking her arm away and breaking her rhythm before jumping back a few meters and holding his blade in stance.

"HOWL!" Renji let his free hand hover over the length of the blade as it transformed a six-segmented blade. "蛇尾丸 (Zabimaru)!"

A wave of reiatsu poured out from Renji, cresting a great burst of wind. However, Shizuku simply regained her bearings after having her blade forced away and took an identical stance to Renji's.

"No...way…"

"Reflect." She spoke in a calm controlled manner. There was neither hesitation nor excess emotion. Simply resolve. She, too, hovered her hand over the length of the blade. "幻鏡 (Maboroshikigami)."

The blade glowed like a mirror reflecting a bright light and then…

* * *

 **Part 2**

"She ran out through the window…" Ichigo muttered as he looked around the room with an opened futon.

"Why do you think she would do that? She still needed to rest..." Orihime turned her head to face Ichigo and Momo.

"Perhaps she heard me and left…" Hinamori spoke up. "After all, a Vice-Captain came to this town to chase after her. It makes sense that she would run."

"No, it doesn't." Ichigo clenched his fist. "She was ready to put her life up as a bargaining chip to protect her friend. No matter what, I can't see someone like her simply running away because of a strong opponent."

 _"…and I don't want to put you all in danger to do that…"_

Some of Shizuku's words passed through Ichigo's mind.

"No…she didn't…" Ichigo placed his hand on his forehead and gritted his teeth. "That idiot…she doesn't want us to become enemies of the Seireitei for her sake…"

She had to have left for only one reason. She thought that being caught in Ichigo's presence would put him in danger. So, escape was the only option. She would cut herself off from him and Orihime.

"What are we going to do, Kurosaki-kun?"

"I'm going to go find that idiot, help her out, and then smack her upside the head when all is said and done."

Momo let her eyes stay wide open at the odd spectacle that was Kurosaki Ichigo before turning to Orihime. "Is he always like this?"

Orihime gave a short chuckle. "Well, he wouldn't be the Kurosaki-kun we all know and love if he wasn't."

Momo, who always figured that the company she kept was a weird bunch, stared at Kurosaki Ichigo as a simple realization dawned over her. "The world really is a big place…"

* * *

 **Part 3**

There was absolutely no way what he was seeing was reality. Renji kept telling himself over and over again but he could neither deny the sight he saw nor the reiatsu he was feeling. "Why the hell can you use Zabimaru?"

Shizuku stared at him without saying a single word and readied a stance with what appeared to be a six-segmented blade, identical to Renji's, in her hand.

"Answer me!" Renji swung his sword in haste. The segments split apart, connected by a stretchable thread that expanded, threatening to reach over to Shizuku and jab one of the protrusions into her side.

But, she blocked.

Her segmented blade made contact with Renji's own through a light swing. His own blade was knocked away and his hand along with it.

Shizuku then dashed forward, pointing Maboroshikigami forward as if aiming for a thrust. Renji retracted the blades and blocked the incoming thrust, only to be pushed back by a few meters.

…or so he had thought.

What he had felt was not the feeling of being pushed back by an opponent and grinding to a halt. It was a different sensation altogether.

It was the sensation of his body unconsciously thrusting itself back at the moment of contact.

"You've noticed it, haven't you." Shizuku finally spoke.

"That blade isn't real, is it?" Renji realized that all of his denial was on point. "I don't know how, but your reiatsu is convincing me that it's real…"

"Maboroshikigami is a phantom mirror in all senses of the wold. It reflects and deceives. From the very beginning, you have been fighting an illusion. In reality, I coat this blade in reiatsu and it takes the appearance of the opponent's Shikai in all senses. All attacks, blocks, and contact will lead to your brain to unconsciously act as if it has been hit by the attack…"

Renji could piece the rest together. Because it was his own Shikai he was sensing, his brain unconsciously reacted to all forces from her attacks.

"Your brain already knows and has sensed the reflection I gave." Her voice neither seemed concerned nor confident. It was as if she was completely detached. "Therefore, closing your eyes is pointless. Cutting off all senses is pointless."

In an instant, she flash-stepped to a meter in front of Renji. Under normal circumstances, he should have been able to respond in an instant. He had spaced out, however. That moment of shock had washed over him.

Shizuku let the illusory whip blade extend as she raised it and pointed it to the heavens. As she swung down to slice down on his left shoulder, Renji broke out of his shock and raised the edge of his blade to catch the edge of Shizuku's. He could only catch the segment closest to the blade guard. Luckily, the whip-sword had not touched him. He could feel the force of the other blade as she attempted to push down but she would not stab into him.

But, in that second, he felt the feeling of flesh being cut and the sensation of steel pushing bone.

No.

It would be more accurate to say that he felt the sensation of his flesh tearing itself open while the muscles pushed into the bone as if a blade was cutting through.

He turned his head slightly to see that the whip-sword Shizuku used had completely retracted, causing the protrusion of the second partition to cut into his left scapula and push it into his clavicle.

She lifted the blade in her hands as Renji's knees buckled and his upper body descended. She would make one last cut to knock him out and then continue her flight. However, that was not fated to happen Renji took a different approach and tackled her, throwing her body back.

As the girl slammed onto the ground like a rag doll, Renji took the opportunity to right his posture and point Zabimaru out in front towards Shizuku who was pushing now pushing herself to stand back up.

"Just this much isn't going to be enough, huh." Renji gave a deep sigh and stared straight into Shizuku's. "If you're not going to give up that easily then you leave me no choice.

"卍解 (Bankai)!" A lone tornado surrounded Renji. From within a white snake head poked up from the top of the tornado and broke through causing it to dissipate and leave behind a snake head connected to what looked like the vertebral column of a snake, held at the tail end by Renji who was draped in a fur cowl. "狒々王蛇尾丸 (Hihiō Zabimaru)!"

The great Baboon King stood at the ready to beat down its next prey.

* * *

 **Part 4**

Ichigo, Momo, and Orihime stood outside the Urahara Shop. They could feel the two spikes in reiatsu off in the distance.

"Don't tell me she ran into Renji…" Ichigo tapered off with a hint of confusion when he saw Shizuku running towards the group.

"Shizuku…?" Ichigo muttered.

"Yes, it's me, pyon!"

"Pyon?" Ichigo and Orihime both questioned simultaneously.

"Don't tell me…" Ichigo's mind took him back to rough memories with a very energetic artificial soul.

 _"This is the most popular artificial soul among female Shinigami…Chappy."_

 _"Woohoo! And your arm goes…break-pyon!"_

"Chappy…?" Ichigo shuddered. He could still feel the sensation of the artificial soul in Rukia's body manhandling him and subsequently breaking his arm. He grabbed at his shoulder and started massaging it almost unconsciously.

"Now that you mention it, she does have Chappy's mannerisms." Momo looked straight into Chappy's eyes, crossed her arms and nodded.

"I don't know what you're talking about, pyon." Chappy averted her eyes.

"You're definitely not Shizuku. There's no way she'd act like that…" Ichigo stepped back. "There's no way she'd say pyon."

"Tch. You're a meanie. You know that, right-pyon?" Chappy took a step forward. "And meanies deserve to be punished-pyon!"

As soon as her sentence finished, she propelled herself into the air, flying in a simple parabolic arc until she landed straight onto Ichigo.

"GAHHH! NOT AGAIN!"

"Kurosaki-kun!" "Kurosaki-san!"

The two girls immediately grabbed at Shizuku-Chappy's arms and pulled her away.

"Dammit. This is the second time you've done this, Chappy!" He got back up and pointed straight at the face of Shizuku-Chappy who was giving an unnatural cutesy smile.

"Pyon?"

Ichigo gave a sigh as he realized he could never get along with the she-psycho given the name, Chappy. "Where is Shizuku?"

"Shizuku-san is somewhere elsewhere-pyon."

"In other words, you're not going to say anything."

"Pyon."

Ichigo gave a sigh before tapping his Shinigami Substitute Combat Pass onto Shizuku-Chappy's forehead, causing the body to go limp and a spherical pill to fall out of her mouth. He picked up the pill and put into one of Shizuku's pockets.

"Alright we have a general idea of where she is anyway. We should-" Ichigo stopped as he felt Renji's Reiatsu spike again. "Dammit! Is that idiot using his Bankai?!"

He slammed the Combat Pass into his chest, causing his soul to separate from his body again. Momo popped an artificial soul of her own and split off from her body.

She spoke to the artificial soul now inhabiting her own body. "Take the unconscious bodies back into the shop and explain what happened."

"Roger that." The artificial soul that was definitely not Chappy immediately took to action, dragging Ichigo's body and Shizuku's gigai into the shop.

"Alright, then. Inoue, Hinamori. Let's get going."

* * *

 **Part 5**

Every single danger signal in Shizuku's mind kept telling her to run away. Now is not the time to use that trump card. There is no way a Shikai can beat that Bankai. JUST RUN.

But her body reacted too late. She tried to take a half-step back to initiate a run as soon as her mind returned to focus the enemy in front of her. But, the snake head barreled straight towards her with its mouth open. She could only react in time to block with the edge of her blade. However, her body was thrown back within half a second of collision, flying back until it slammed into the ground again while she lost her grip of her sword that landed even further back.

Without even attempting to get up or go after Maboroshikigami, Shizuku slammed her hand into the floor. "Bakudō Number 21. 赤煙遁 (Sekienton)."

A large mass of red smoke billowed out at an alarming rate from her hands and floated up, blocking Renji's sight. Nevertheless, the snake head barreled through the smoke. But, it made no contact with anything.

Shizuku had pressed up against a wall on the side of the road and dodged the incoming attack by a margin of a couple of centimeters.

She ran back to grab the sword that was now lying underneath Hihiō Zabimaru. Once she did, the red smoke had completely dissipated, leaving behind the image of Shizuku holding her blade while Zabimaru's head was moving further away after having passed her.

"Dammit!" Renji, realizing the opening he had given, immediately pulled Hihiō Zabimaru back. However, Shizuku was more than ready to take advantage of that opportunity. She sealed Maboroshikigami and sheathed it before raising her hands.

"Bakudō Number 8." She quickly drew a symbol in the air with the index and middle finger of her right hand. "撃 (Geki)."

Renji's body began to emit a red light as it completely stopped moving, causing Hihiō Zabimaru to fall straight to the ground. His face could only show pure bewilderment as his body ceased to move.

"Bakudō Number 4." A crackling yellow energy rope formed around her two hands. "這縄 (Hainawa)." She threw the rope which reached over to Renji and bound around his arms and body before slamming them together.

She then reached at the hilt of her sword again and started to pull it out.

"卍- (Ban-)."

However, before she could finish, a hand reached from behind her and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from pulling the blade out.

"There's no need to use that, Shizuku." A familiar voice came from behind her.

Shizuku turned her head back to see the face of an all too familiar friend. He had black eyes, wavy hair, and his expression resembled that of a protective older brother trying to prevent his younger sibling from doing something stupid.

"Mamoru-kun!" Shizuku let go of her blade and turned around to face him. "You're alright."

Mamoru gave Shizuku a pat on the head. "You're a bit bruised, but you're not doing to bad yourself, Shizuku." He then looked at Renji who was struggling but seemed close to breaking out. "But, I guess we couldn't evade the Seireitei forever. Come on, let's return. I have an idea about how to end all of this."

He jabbed his blade into the air behind him and turned it, opening a Garganta. Shizuku looked back at Renji and then looked in the direction of the Urahara shop before turning to face the Garganta. "Alright. Let's head off, then."

* * *

 **Part 6**

Renji couldn't move. His bankai was lying on the ground as his entire body was completely restrained and both fugitives were about to escape.

He would not let that happen.

He absolutely would not let that happen.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

He poured out all his reiatsu through his entire body as he focused purely on breaking the bindings while the two fugitives were talking and the moment they turned around, his body finally moved as he felt all the bindings shatter to pieces.

"I won't let you escape!"

Hihiō Zabimaru immediately rose up and moved straight towards the two. It's body's segments split with as its mouth opened to reveal a red orb of energy.

"狒骨大砲 (Hikotsu Taihō)!"

As soon as he shouted this, he saw the male fugitive drawing out his word and saying something.

"Protect. 巴丸 (Tomoemaru)."

The boy's blade was replaced with three large, floating, silver shields, each with a black and red tomoe sitting on the center.

A second later, Renji's attack engulfed everything on that road. A sustained flash of red light threatened to dye the sky above it with a color of equal intensity.

After five seconds, the red light thinned out and disappeared, leaving nothing but smoke and dust in front of Renji's path.

Renji, panted and stared in front of him as the dust parted and his bankai dissipated.

He took a knee and stabbed the blade into the ground while the wound on his back continued to pour blood.

All he could see was an empty road scorched by the attack with a small circular section of the road left completely untouched.

It was as if all signs of life before him had completely disappeared.

* * *

 **Part 7**

With all the commotion going on, it was pretty obvious where the combatants would be and as expected, the three had found an exhausted Renji kneeling in the center of the road with a big gaping wound on his back.

"Abarai-san!" "Renji!" As Ichigo and Momo called out to him, he got up and turned to face them.

"Ichigo. Hinamori. Inoue…" He gave as forced a smile as he could while trying to stand up with an obvious stagger in his step.

"Don't force yourself, Renji." Ichigo stopped and caught Renji by the biceps and allowed him to sit back down. "Inoue!"

"Right." She went behind Renji and picked up her hairpins while looking at Renji's wound. Four of the petals flew out from the hairpins and flew above and below the wound before an orange light came out between them to start the healing process.

"What happened, Abarai-san?"

"I ran into one of the fugitives and tried to put her into custody but the other fugitive came and made her escape."

"Tried to put her into custody…?" Ichigo looked to the scorched road. "THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THE WORK OF SOMEONE WHO WAS ONLY TRYING TO CAPTURE SOMEONE!"

"Well, I can't help it! I was fighting a fifth seat with my limiter on! Of course, I was going to have trouble!"

"But, how are you so sure they escaped?" Hinamori interjected before Renji could scream any louder and exacerbate his wound's seriousness.

"Eighth Seat Houki had opened a Senkaimon before I had broken out of the binds Iroha cast onto me and he had activated his Shikai right before I fired."

"Eighth Seat Houki's Shikai is Tomoemaru. It's a Shikai that replaces his blade with three large, floating shields and makes a powerful defense for anything that is hidden behind it." Momo spoke, as if reciting basic information. "It was in the data next to Fifth Seat Iroha's Shikai Maboroshikigami…which you didn't read, Abarai-san…"

"Umm…"

"You were in such a rush that you never learned the fact that Fifth Seat Iroha's fighting style runs entirely on surprise, startling, and disruption."

"Umm…"

Ichigo looked straight at Renji who seemed to be trying to avert his eyes. "So, you got wounded because you got zealous and decided to run in without information."

"Shut it, Ichigo."

"Well, at least that means she has yet to fall into the hands of the Seireitei yet. Though, we've pretty much lost her now."

"In all likelihood, Kurosaki-san, the two of them are going to head back to the Seireitei and lay low there."

"Actually, I never did get your answer to that question I asked earlier thanks to all the confusion, Hinamori-san."

"What was it?"

"I doubt Renji knows the answer-"

"I heard that!"

"But why are you going after Shizuku? I understand you're chasing after this Mamoru person because he helped Shizuku's escape. But why Shizuku?"

"Honestly, we weren't given any reasons. We were just told to watch out for her Bankai. Beyond that, nothing else."

Ichigo's face took on his trademark scowl. "Were you even given information about her Bankai?"

"The higher ups gave us nothing to work on with regards to us. Data on her shikai and fighting style were all that were given." Momo promptly replied.

If the group chasing after the girl had no idea why she was being arrested and were not even privy to certain information, then there was no way for him to find out what Shizuku's supposed crime was. All he knew was that her Bankai was kept classified.

 _"'Central 46 will soon issue the kill order so just get out of here! I refuse to let them enact that twisted justice for the sake of maintaining the status quo.'"_

Was her Bankai the thing that was threatening the status quo of the Seireitei? That was the only possibility Ichigo could connect out of all of this.

"Would the Central 46 order the elimination of anyone because they were too powerful?"

"I wouldn't think so…" Momo replied.

"Actually, it's not entirely impossible…" Renji cut in. Orihime's healing had finished so, he stood up and stretched his right arm. "You probably might not have heard of this Ichigo, but there was one time that the Captain-Commander attempted to teach Captain Zaraki to master Zanjutsu."

Ichigo nodded. "I vaguely remember him mentioning that back in Hueco Mundo."

"Unfortunately, that training was never completed. Central 46 had ordered that the training end before it could reach completion."

"I remember hearing about this as well." Momo continued on. "There was no formal reason given though rumors were floating around that Central 46 may have been worried that Captain Zaraki would be impossible to stop if he were to rebel."

"So, you're saying that they might be doing the same for Shizuku-chan?"

Renji sighed. "If it has to do with her Bankai, then it's a likely assumption."

"That's all the more reason to prevent her death sentence, then." Orihime spoke up. "It's not fair for her to be executed for something like that."

Ichigo nodded in response. "There's no reason to stand by and let a friend be killed for the sake of some twisted justice like that."

"Oi, Ichigo. You do realize what you're doing, right?" Renji grabbed at Ichigo's shoulders again. "You realize that by doing this, you're going to be going against the Seireitei, right?"

"Heh. That doesn't sound like the Renji who helped me rescue Rukia back during her execution." Ichigo seemed to exude almost pure confidence from that smug grin on his face.

"Watch what you say, Ichigo."

"My point is this. No verdict has been handed down yet. All of Shizuku's and Mamoru's actions have been pre-emptive. That means that we still have a chance to end all of this and prevent another possible execution without bloodshed. So, are you on board with us, Renji, Hinamori?"

* * *

 **Part 8**

Shizuku and Mamoru traversed through the Dangai. It only took a few minutes before they reached the right in front of the exit.

"Mamoru-kun…" Shizuku could only follow behind him. She no longer held any idea what she would be doing or what would happen to her. "What are we doing?"

"We need to lay low. If we want to succeed in preventing you from being captured, we need to keep playing this game of cat and mouse with the Gotei 13." He looked at his sword which had most of its blade completely melted off. "I need to repair Tomoemaru as well. So, the best thing to do now is to lay low."

"Are we even able to do that? The Second Division will eventually find us…"

"I have my own methods. Captain Kurotsuchi never really cared for my side projects so there were plenty of things I have built up to help us mask our presence. Some built up on a similar principle to how your Maboroshikigami works."

"What then…? We keep running and we'll eventually be closed in on."

"I have ways to end this as well. I will protect you, Shizuku. That's all that matters in the end."

"No. That's not all that matters in the end." Mamoru's eyes widened in surprise at Shizuku's sudden bout of rebellion. "I'm tired of this. I hate this. Every time, I just keep placing a burden on everyone around me. First you, then Kurosaki and Inoue." Shizuku placed a hand on her chest and clutched at her shihakusho. "I hate having to make my own life a burden for everyone around me."

"Shizuku…" His face seemed relax as he gave a smile of approval to the girl. "You're finally…"

"Finally what…?" Shizuku pressed.

"It's nothing. Even if it's something I'm glad to see, I can't let this affect the plan. So, Shizuku…" He put a hand in front of Shizuku's face. "Would you care to just take a short nap? 威眠 (Inemuri)."

With those words, Shizuku's pupils began to dilate multiple times before she closed her eyes and fell into slumber once again.

* * *

 **Part 9**

"You already finished…" Ichigo stared at the large square shaped gate he had once went through long ago.

"Surprisingly, the Reishi Henkan-ki didn't need much in the way of tune-ups. It was mostly functional once we blew the dust off." Ichigo was unsure of whether Urahara's grin was his own way of patting himself on the back or an expression of just how happy he was that he didn't have to do much work. "I would say don't underestimate my capabilities but it was I who did all the underestimating this time."

"Right, right." Ichigo suppressed the growing urge in his mind to dropkick the man right there. "Are the conditions the same as the last time?"

"Pretty much. Though, is there any specific location you'd like the other gate to open on?"

"Actually, if we don't want to draw any suspicion, it might just be best to have it connect to the main gate." Momo interjected before anyone could bring up any suggestions.

"We can guide you to wherever you need after that," Renji said.

"So, you'd be able to take us to the Thirteenth Division Headquarters?"

"We can. I assume you'd want to meet up with Rukia, then?"

"That would be the best course of action. So long as Shizuku and Mamoru decide to lay low, we have a fair amount of leeway."

With that, the giant square-shaped converter started to activate. "If that's all settled, then hurry up. The converter will only be active for so long."

Ichigo gave a quick look back to the other three and then started to walk to the converter. "Let's get going, then."

* * *

 **Interlude II**

How many times had she fallen asleep in the past 24 hours? Shizuku could swear she was now just getting way too used to waking up after falling unconscious for some reason or another.

The room seemed to be dimly lit by candles at a table on the opposite end of the room from the bed she was sleeping on. Despite the lack of covers on her body, she did not seem to feel the slightest bit cold.

Shizuku slowly picked her upper body off the bed and got into a lazy sitting position supporting herself with just one hand while her knees were still locked together. After rubbing her eyes with her free hand, she finally had a look around the area.

It was a simple rectangular room with walls that seemed to be made completely of stone. There were no windows anywhere though there was a door on the furthest wall away from her, which likely functioned as an exit.

On the wall adjacent to the bed she was laying on was a sentence written in giant lettering that said "I will be called onii-chan someday!"

Shizuku narrowed her eyes at the sight of those words. "I have my doubts…."

At the very least, she was sure that was something Mamoru would write which meant she was likely in one of his hideouts. She wondered why she was there until she remembered something Mamoru had said.

 _"I need to repair Tomoemaru as well. So, the best thing to do now is to lay low."_

"Lay low, huh…"

In other words, he wanted her to stay put until they had enough leeway to make the next move.

Shizuku, however, had no idea what the next move was or even what Mamoru's endgame was. All he had said was that he would protect her.

She got up off the bed and made her way to the table with the lit candles on them. It was likely his desk. However, the surface was devoid of any materials.

She had nothing to do, so it was best to just start rummaging through his stuff like she usually did when bored.

So, she opened the top drawer on the desk. Empty.

Second Drawer. Empty.

Bottom Drawer. Jackpot.

There were pages and pages of bound paper, which was likely Mamoru's own notes. She took the papers at the top and went back to the bed. It was likely some of his notes from his work as part of the R&D Department. She quite enjoyed perusing his materials, even if she had no idea what the calculations meant.

She turned the cover and started reading through. She went page by page.

But something was not right.

She could actually understand these. There were very few, if any, complex formulae she would be unable to understand littered throughout these notes. Instead, there were much more conclusions, logical statements, and steps.

Her eyes started to widen as she realized the implications of what was written and as she finally made it to the last page, any suspicions she may have had were confirmed.

"Mamoru-kun…you idiot…" She muttered. "You don't have to go through all of this."

She gritted her teeth. It was frustrating. All this time, he was planning something far more dangerous than he let on.

"Was this what you meant when you said you have your ways to end this…" It was definitely not something she would have liked. Regardless of intent, this was not the way she wanted it to end.

She dropped the papers in her hand on the bed and walked out the door.

She would absolutely not let him proceed with this plan. That was something she was absolutely certain of.

* * *

 **A/N: With that, the story's setting turns to Soul Society. How things will go from here is anyone's guess. Though, Mamoru's actions have been the monkey wrench that has set this plot into motion. As for Shizuku's decision to run last chapter, it is rash. Though, there was a reason for her starting to make these rash actions.**

 **Well, new chapter should either be out next week or the week after as I may be unable to upload next week.**


	3. Image 3-Deliberation and Disruption

**Image 3-**

 **Deliberation and Disruption**

* * *

 **Part 1**

The door of the main Senkaimon entrance opened in front of Ichigo, Orihime, Renji, and Momo.

"Vice Captain Abarai! Vice Captain Hinamori!" One of the two members of the Kidō Corps standing guard at the sides of the gate spoke up. "You've returned early."

"We dealt with some trouble in Karakura." Renji spoke, giving as vague an answer as possible.

"What of the Shinigami Substitute and the other girl?"

"They have business with the Thirteenth Division."

"Understood, sir. We shall call for an escort immediately." The Kidō Corps member on the left started to move.

"There's no need for that. I will escort them, personally." Renji interrupted him before he could open communications with his higher ups for an entourage to escort them. "Is there a problem with that?"

"None at all, sir."

The group moved away from the entrance as the guards started to close it. "So, what are we going to do about the fact that Shizuku and Mamoru are likely here in the Seireitei now?" Ichigo asked.

"We're going to report it to our higher ups, of course." Renji sighed as he gave the inevitable answer.

"But Abarai-san…" Orihime tried to voice an objection.

"If we're going to try and negotiate to exonerate the two of them, we can't be hiding information."

"Wait, why is that?" Ichigo was no expert in negotiating with others but he was sure that keeping certain information hidden was always necessary in order to keep an advantage. "If we keep Shizuku's whereabouts a secret, then we should have some leverage, right?"

"Kurosaki-san. What you're proposing would have the exact opposite effect in our case. What you're suggesting would only work if the people we were negotiating with stood on the same level or below us on the hierarchy." Momo crossed her arms. "But we're talking about negotiating Shizuku's fate with Central 46. If we give them even a reason to distrust us, then we lose."

"So, hiding Shizuku's approximate whereabouts would just give more reason for them to hand down a death sentence." Ichigo gritted his teeth. "Damn Seireitei politics…"

"I'll head off and report to Captain, then. As much as he feigns apathy, he would actually be willing to assist us." Momo sighed, realizing that she'd have to deal with Shinji's lackadaisical sense of pace.

"Ah, right. Your Captain is Hirako…" Ichigo nodded along with Momo's plan of action.

"Tell him I say, hi!"

"Inoue, you're right here. You can say hi yourself."

"No, no. Kurosaki-kun, don't you get it? There's a procedure to these kinds of things. You're supposed to have someone else tell them hi for you and then you pop out and surprise them like whooooa!" Orihime's hands flew up with a high level of gusto.

"Right, right." Ichigo gently held her wrists and pulled her arms back down to her side.

"Ichigo. We really should get going." Renji interrupted, bringing the ditz and her tsukkomi back to earth.

"Right. We don't have much time." Ichigo said before the four of them headed into the Seireitei.

* * *

 **Part 2**

"Is something wrong, Ichigo?" Sitting opposite to Ichigo and Orihime was Rukia who slowly sipped at the tea in her hands.

"You know, Rukia…" Looking at Rukia, Ichigo narrowed his eyes before turning his head to the side.

Rukia stared back at him and then also looked to where Ichigo had directed his eyes.

"I really did not expect Jushiro-san to join us…"

The target of everyone else's attention, Captain Ukitake widened his eyes in a false sense of surprise as he reciprocated the stares he was being given. "Is something wrong with that? It's rare for Ichigo-kun and Orihime-kun to come to the Seireitei, let alone the the Thirteenth Division headquarters. I thought I would at least say hello to you two."

Ichigo and Orihime turned to look at each other before looking back at Ukitake. "I guess not…We wanted to speak to you as well after we talked with Rukia."

"We just didn't expect you to show up so soon."

"Now, that's a surprise. I wouldn't expect the two of you to come to see me. What is it about?"

"Iroha Shizuku." The name that came from Ichigo's mouth immediately shifted the attention of the Captain and Vice-Captain of the Thirteenth Division. Ukitake's almost lackadaisical attitude immediately fell away as a serious air befell him. "We met her in Karakura Town."

"So, she really did escape to there." Ukitake put his index finger over his mouth as he pondered. "I assume you made contact with her, then."

"She came to me saying she wanted my help to protect the person who let her escape…"

"Did the person happen to go by the name Houki Mamoru?" Rukia interjected.

"Yeah. Apparently, he sent her to Karakura Town to keep her away from the Seireitei."

"So, it's as we expected…" Rukia sighed.

"What do you mean by that?" Orihime chimed in.

"Mamoru-kun and Shizuku-kun were regularly seen together. The two of them were often compared to Rukia-kun and Captain Kuchiki."

"Captain?!" Rukia shouted in complement to the blush that had appeared on her face.

"Like a doting and protective older brother and his sister. In fact, we've had a couple of reports of Mamoru-kun sneaking onto the grounds to see Shizuku-kun at various points and even trying to get himself stationed on the same missions as her despite being part of a different division."

Ichigo and Orihime looked at each other, then to Rukia, and then back to each other before chuckling.

"Hey! Ichigo! Orihime! What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, Rukia-chan." Orihime continued to chuckle even while she reassured her.

"We just remembered some moments with certain doting family members."

"Uh-huh…" Rukia could only nod as she saw the two of them laughing. "Anyway, did you ever find out why Fifth Seat Iroha fled…or why Houki Mamoru had her flee?"

"She said she didn't know. All she was told was that Central 46 wanted to execute her to maintain the status quo."

"Well, it's true that she was originally scheduled for a hearing with Central 46 though the reason was kept classified."

"You're not denying the possibility, Jushiro-san…"

"Honestly, I am unable to do so." Jushiro crossed his arms. "It's not like we haven't had that happening before. You've been the subject to it, yourself."

Ichigo nodded. The plans behind the Shinigami Substitute Combat Pass were devised by the man in front of him. At a moment's notice, Ichigo could have been cut down by the Seireitei. That fact remained unchanged.

"I assume you want to stop this execution before it is ordered?" Rukia continued.

"Yeah. That's what we're after."

"Do you think it's possible?" Orihime asked Ukitake.

"At the moment, I'm still unsure what will happen once she's apprehended." Ukitake sighed and closed his eyes. "Though that will likely be brought up at the Captain's Meeting. After all, the orders to apprehend the Shizuku-kun and Mamoru-kun came on such rushed notice that the people who know the most details were the two sent to Karakura Town to search. Even Rukia-kun knows little despite seeing off Renji-kun and Momo-kun."

"Would you be willing to stave off an execution, then?"

"There is no guarantee that an execution would even be demanded." Ukitake reopened his eyes. "But, Shizuku-kun is my subordinate. I, at least, want to be able to hear from her before any decisions are made. I'll do what I can to eliminate the possibility of an execution."

"That's wonderful! Do you hear that, Kurosaki-kun?!"

"I would probably hear it better if you weren't shaking me back and forth, Inoueeee." The Doppler Effect began to impact Ichigo's voice as Orihime continuously shook him, unaware of the impending concussion she would likely be imparting onto him.

Rukia sat and chuckled as she watched the interaction play forth.

"Dammit, Rukia! Don't laugh! Help me out here!"

"Once you three are done, I'll need to gather as many details as possible. The more information I have from you, the likelier it will be that I can convince the Captain-Commander." Ukitake said with a smile.

* * *

 **Part 3**

"Onto the matter of the two fugitives." The authoritative voice of the Captain Commander echoed throughout the room. "It has come to my attention that the two are now within the Seireitei. Therefore, I am now ordering the Gotei 13 to capture and take the two of them into custody. Once we have done that, we will be taking them off to Central 46 for hearings. Are there any questions?"

"Captain-Commander, I would like to have some time to question the fugitives before the hearing." Ukitake was the first to speak up.

"Is there any particular reason, Jushiro?" Captain Kyoraku was the next to speak up.

"I think I'm gonna have to jump in and side with Captain Ukitake on this one."

"As am I."

Captain Kuchiki and Captain Hirako were the next to speak in agreement with the first interjection.

"You do realize that you're trying to defend for a traitor, right?" Suì-Fēng was the first to voice audible displeasure at the very suggestion of a traitor being given any form of light sentencing. "Captain Kuchiki, I thought you would be the one of the least opposed to punishing a traitor."

"One of them made contact with Kurosaki Ichigo in Karakura Town." The others shifted all their attention to Captain Kuchiki. "According to him, she claimed that they ran because they pre-empted an execution for fifth seat Iroha."

"That makes no sense. Why would Kurosaki even decide to side with a traitor?" Suì-Fēng muttered. "Has he gone crazy enough to actually-"

"Suì-Fēng. Apparently, she pre-empted what was apparently an execution to maintain the status quo." Ukitake interrupted. "Considering the kind of person Ichigo-kun is, this is exactly in line with what he would do. After all, I'm sure we remember something very similar happening two years ago on Soukyoku Hill."

* * *

 **Part 4**

"At the very least, we've created a gap between apprehending the two and their hearing." Ukitake gave the report to Rukia, Ichigo, and Orihime. The rest of the Gotei 13 had long since dispersed from the waiting room meant for the Vice-captains. "That being said, if we lose the shinigami named Iroha Shizuku, we might end up deciding that the chase is not worth it and will only go after her if she shows up here again. After all, a bankai can only be used to rebel against us if it's within our vicinity."

"Captain Ukitake…why are you giving the briefing here? Shouldn't you wait until we return to the division headquarters…?"

"Should I? I guess protocol just evades me in my old age." Ukitake gave a simple smile and looked at the three in front of him.

Ichigo simply smiled back and nodded. "Come on, Inoue!" He grabbed the girl's hand as he ran to the ledge, picked her up in a princess carry, and jumped off.

"Wha-?! Kurosaki-kun? W-W-W-Waaaait!"

The sound of a pair of feet hitting the ground followed by two people running off reached the ears of Ukitake who was standing on that waiting area a few floors up.

"How nice it must be to be so young and so full of energy." Ukitake chuckled as he walked towards the exit.

"That was not subtle at all, Captain." Rukia said as she followed behind him.

"I thought I did a fine job."

"Honestly, turning a blind eye to her if she escapes from the sight of the Gotei…was that really what the Captain-Commander said?"

"I'm just as surprised, myself. I never thought he would be willing to turn a blind eye like that."

"Why though…? I know that Ichigo has broken through the Gotei's inflexibility before but is it really that or is it just that they want to avoid Ichigo turning on them?"

"Probably both. At the very least, I think that Ichigo-kun has shown that he'd be willing to fight down to the end in order to save someone even if they didn't ask for help. You should know that all too well." He stopped to turn back to Rukia. But she merely stayed silent. "Refusing to allow a twisted justice that causes others to suffer, was it…? A couple of years ago, that man at the command would have never entertained such a thought."

* * *

 **Part 5**

"So, where do we start?"

"That…is a good question…" Ichigo had no answer for that. Despite his burst of confidence and the head-start Ukitake had given him, he was running aimlessly. They were already quite the distance away from the First Division Headquarters which they had bolted straight out of.

"Dammit…I shouldn't have rushed out here without planning…"

"Hmm…" Orihime crossed her arms and put on a face that tried too hard to say "I'm thinking."

"How about the twelfth division?" Orihime's face returned to normal. "If Mamoru-san was the one who took Shizuku-chan, then maybe the two of them are within the vicinity."

"That won't be necessary." A third voice came from behind the two of them. Ichigo and Orihime turned to see a man who they had only seen in photos behind them. He was a shinigami with wavy black hair and black eyes.

"You're Houki Mamoru, I take it." Ichigo spoke up first.

"That is indeed my name." Both of the man's hands were crossed at his chest. He was full of openings and seemed to exhibit zero killer intent. His eyes were showing nothing but pure calm and his mouth was curved up into a smile Ichigo and Orihime knew far too well as the smile of a person looking at a distant friend.

"What do you want?"

"Now, now, Ichigo-san. No need to be hostile." He waved his hands in front of himself. "I merely wanted to thank you for taking care of Shizuku yesterday. She can be a bit of a handful at times, but she's still like a growing child, so I do appreciate what you've done to try and help her."

"Is that really all you came to us for?"

"Well, I understand you want to save Shizuku as much as I do. So, I see you as a valuable ally."

"An ally? Why would you say that?"

"We both want to prevent the possibility of Shizuku's life being lost to a twisted justice that can't even be called goodwill. But there's more to it than that."

"Wh-"

"Shhh." Mamoru put a finger over his lips. "I will explain everything and I will even take you to Shizuku. Even she's probably bored out of her mind at this point. So, just follow me."

The man turned around and walked, expecting the two to follow behind him.

Ichigo turned his head to face Orihime as she did the same. The both nodded at each other. Mamoru held no malice. In fact, they were all too familiar with the attitude he bore.

It was the attitude of a brother who would do anything to protect his little sister. It was nothing more than an outward showing of pure familial love.

At the very least, they felt that he had Shizuku's best interests at heart. So, they followed the man from behind as he made his way to where he left Shizuku.

* * *

 **Part 6**

"I can't believe that the Captain-Commander would give Ichigo that much leeway, though." Renji tried to wrap his brain around what had apparently occurred during the Captains' meeting that they had left not even five minutes ago. What surprised him even more was the fact that Byakuya made no effort to hide the fact that he was fairly pleased with the results, though he would never say that out loud.

"Considering how much more flexible the Captain-Commander has been recently, especially with Kurosaki, I don't think this is all that surprising."

"Is it really alright for the Seireitei to bending over backwards for Ichigo like this, though?"

"I don't think it would be right to call it the Seireitei bending over backwards, Renji." Byakuya stopped walking. "It's change. The rigidity the Seireitei has held for the past millennium has started to come to an end. The Gotei 13 has become slightly more willing to skirt around the law."

Something that Byakuya held in such high regard as a Captain of the Gotei 13 as the rigid and ironclad basis of the Seireitei was starting to loosen. It was an odd change that Byakuya could not help but stare in awe at. After all, he was the one who was so hell bent on executing his own sister for the sake of upholding the law.

He held up his hand with his palm facing him. He recollected his own actions. He would have probably scoffed at the idea of helping to give Ichigo leeway to save Shizuku like he did just there if it were the old him. He would have probably disdained the very idea of giving his reiatsu to return Ichigo's shinigami powers a few weeks prior if it were the old him. He would have never given Renji and Rukia an avenue to assist Ichigo in Hueco Mundo if it were the old him.

He would have never.

The man let out a single silent chuckle, placing his arm back to his side.

"Renji. Head back to the barracks on your own."

"Is something wrong, Captain?"

"There's something I need to address first so head back first."

Renji stared at Byakuya's back, scratched his head and then turned the nearest corner to head back to the Sixth Division barracks.

Byakuya stood in silence, watching as Renji left. Once he was absolutely certain that his vice-captain and others were out of the vicinity, he spoke while staring at another turn in the corner of his eye. "I can tell that you're hiding behind that corner."

A female shinigami walked out from behind that corner. She had shoulder-length silver hair and blue eyes. Her right hand was holding tightly onto the hilt of the zanpakutou on her scabbard.

"Thirteenth Division, Fifth Seat Iroha Shizuku, I presume."

* * *

 **Part 7**

The plans in Mamoru's notes were mostly still gibberish to Shizuku. Terms like "immortality", "Hougyoku" and "transcendence" were thrown around throughout it. It almost seemed like some teenager's chuunibyou-esque fantasy.

But those notes were far from fantasy.

There was one thing that was absolutely certain from those notes.

 _"For Shizuku's sake, I would and will gladly sacrifice my life."_

Those words were neither a threat nor a bluff. After all, those notes were all concealed for Mamoru's own usage and for nobody else's eyes.

Those words were an affirmation of resolve.

Mamoru was planning to die. He wanted to give the girl who he thought of as his own little sister immortality. For that, he was planning to let himself die.

Shizuku ran. She would dodge various Shinigami, keep herself hidden, and continue running.

She had to find Mamoru.

She had to convince him to not sacrifice himself for her own sake.

Regardless of how she looked at it, she would refuse to accept some sort of answer meant to coddle her like "I will always be by your side." Such a flimsy excuse was something she would not accept.

She wouldn't accept it….

Shizuku stifled a chuckle as she questioned herself. Since when did she ever start to worry about what she would and would not accept? The others must have really been starting to rub off on her. A simple mirror like her would never say that normally.

 _"Is it really alright for the Seireitei to bending over backwards for Ichigo like this, though?"_

Shizuku immediately halted at the sound of a familiar voice. It was the vice-captain she had fought in Karakura Town.

 _"I don't think it would be right to call it the Seireitei bending over backwards, Renji….It's change. The rigidity the Seireitei has held for the past millennium has started to come to an end. The Gotei 13 has become slightly more willing to skirt around the law."_

Shizuku could only think of one thing at the sound of that. Kurosaki was actually able to pull something off in the background.

But even so…the situation had changed drastically. This was no longer at the point where executions mattered.

 _"Renji. Head back to the barracks on your own."_

 _"Is something wrong, Captain?"_

 _"There's something I need to address first so head back first."_

It seemed that the Captain had stayed behind though. In fact, it sounded like he had not even moved a step since he sent his Vice-Captain off.

And then, the worst case scenario was confirmed.

 _"I can tell that you're hiding behind that corner."_

The Captain had noticed her reiatsu. There was no avoiding this encounter. She could not be captured here for any reason.

She held a firm grasp on the hilt of her blade and walked out to see the Captain of the Sixth Division, Kuchiki Byakuya standing before her.

"Thirteenth Division, Fifth Seat Iroha Shizuku, I presume."

"You presume correctly." Sweat poured down her body. Her grip tightened.

"If possible, I would rather that you come silently. Thanks to Kurosaki Ichigo, your and eighth seat Houki's hearings have been postponed and may possibly be eliminated altogether after interrogation. Of course, if both of you can escape the Seireitei, we will not pursue."

Shizuku raised an eyebrow. Why was the Captain telling her this? All he needed to do was wordlessly apprehend her.

"I wonder why I actually said all of that." The man uttered. He was feigning ignorance. He was fully aware of that little slip of the tongue he had given. Yet, he was feigning fault.

"I'm sorry. But the situation has simply gone beyond the bounds of the Seireitei's law." She unsheathed her blade and immediately dashed straight towards the Captain, aiming to slice straight through his chest.

However, her blade caught against his own, both with their edges near-perpendicular to each other. Kuchiki's pointed up while Shizuku's pointed towards the side. "I need to get past you. So, step aside."

"Unfortunately, I cannot do that."

Shizuku had fully expected that. There was no way she would be simply allowed to pass.

She tilted her blade and slid the side of her blade along his own to stab at him. However, she noticed a yellow flash in his free hand too late.

"黄火閃 (Ōkasen)."

The yellow light slammed straight into her, throwing her back. The friction between her feet and the ground could almost leave skid marks.

Her shoulder hurt from the blow. But she was neither thrown off balance nor was she knocked to the floor.

"I guess holding back may not be the best course of action." Holding his blade in the same position he had when defending, he made the invocation. "Scatter, 千本桜 (Senbonzakura)."

The blade scattered into numerous floating cherry blossom petals. They fluttered. And then…

"Reflect. 幻鏡 (Maboroshikigami)." Shizuku held her blade up the same. The blade seemed to come apart into multiple flower petals.

A battle between identical miniature blades began in that pathway.

* * *

 **Part 8**

The three of them were supposed to see Shizuku lying on the bed. Mamoru had taken Ichigo and Orihime to a hidden location which had underground. Apparently, he had left Shizuku sleeping there.

But, as Mamoru opened the door, the first thing he could see was pure darkness and silence. It was likely the candles lighting the place had gone out. While Shizuku was never the type to care about the light intensity of her surroundings, it was strange of her to not reply to Mamoru coming to see her.

Mamoru found a pair of candles and lit them, only to see an empty room. There were signs that someone had been in there until likely a few hours ago.

Ichigo and Orihime watched the shinigami pace back and forth between the table and the bed while lightly clenching her fist.

"I assume…" Ichigo attempted to break the silence.

"It seems like Shizuku decided to act on her own after I explicitly asked her to lay low."

"We don't have much time, then. Shizuku could be anywhere." Orihime spoke next.

"In that case, it's best I let you know about this." Ichigo faced Mamoru. "We can avoid the possibility of execution if we can get both you and Shizuku out of the Soul Society."

Mamoru stared at Ichigo with wide eyes. It was the sight of a man who had finally seen a faint glow of hope far too late. "If only it were that simple. Pre-empting an execution was only a means to an end."

"You mean, it was the excuse for you to start something…"

"That's right. There's more to this than that." Mamoru took a deep breath. "Shizuku is dying. At best she has a month left."

A heavy silence pervaded over the area. It was as if time had stopped to blot out everything with a single growing thread of despair.

"But wait. Shouldn't it be something I can heal."

"I doubt it. Shizuku's condition comes from a source entirely different from any external wound. In fact, it's-"

Mamoru stopped as the feeling of a massive reiatsu pressed down on them.

"This is…Byakuya's…No…" Ichigo was confused. "This is double his usual reiatsu from his Bankai."

"No…half of that is…" Mamoru gritted his teeth. "DAMMIT!" He slammed his fist into the wall.

Without a word he ran off, leaving Ichigo and Orihime behind in that dingy room.

* * *

 **Interlude III**

Shizuku was certain she had to get into Senbonzakura's woundless zone. It was reckless but, ultimately, it was the best bet for someone like her.

She could not precisely control her reiatsu to hit all of the countless petals and deflect them. Ultimately, the phantom mirror of Senbonzakura was meaningless in a state where the petals could move in any direction.

She could not predict the idiosyncrasies of Byakuya's attacks. If she could not do that, her responses would be too slow.

So, she immediately moved forward, ignoring the flying petals cutting at her. She gathered all of the illusory petals and concentrated them back into the blade.

Byakuya's eyes widened at the sight of Shizuku's flower petals concentrating into the blade. It was never something he had tried in Shikai before but it used the theory behind his Senkei.

Concentration of the multiple blades into one to create one with a powerful force.

He knew, all too well, how devastating such an attack would be.

As soon as the girl had flash-stepped into the woundless zone, ready to swing her blade at Byakuya, he held he hand to face her chest. "Hadō #63. 雷吼炮 (Raikōhō)."

A yellow flash lit the area with the sound of crashing thunder as Shizuku was immediately thrown back to an even greater distance away than when she had started. She stumbled, trying to get on her feet when…

"Bakudō #61. 六杖光牢 (Rikujōkōrō)."

Six wide beams of light slammed into Shizuku's midsection. Her grip on the her sword slightly loosed on impact before her body's movements completely shut down. She was stuck in a half standing position, unable to move.

All she could do was stare at the captain standing a few meters away.

In the end, the outcome was obvious. She was completely outmatched.

There was no way that a simple Fifth Seat could overcome a Captain and even her near-victory over the Vice-Captain came purely because of his limiter being active.

She was faced with the unquestionable reality that she would no longer be able to proceed forward.

"I would rather not take any chances with you." Byakuya spoke to his now imprisoned opponent. "So, I will knock you out here and now." The flower petal blades returned to make one single blade.

He held his blade facing perpendicular to the ground. "卍解 (Bankai)."

He let go of his sword, which promptly fell to and phased through the ground causing ripples. The world around seemed to turn dark as numerous katana blades rose through the ground on either side of Byakuya, as if forming procession for him.

A bright pink light wrapped around each of those blades before they fell apart into countless flower petals.

The air around then turned into a black-purple hue while the petals coalesced into numerous katana that formed circular row on top of circular row, each rotating in a direction opposite to its adjacent ones and forming a twelve row high cylinder surrounding the two combatants.

"千本桜景厳-殲景 (Senbonzakura Kageyoshi-Senkei)."

One of the blades immediately flew out next to Byakuya.

Shizuku could only stare helpless. It was the end.

She would no longer be able to stop Mamoru.

She would be knocked out here and it would be checkmate.

 _Dammit!_

There had to be a way to escape. There just had to.

Her eyes turned to her zanpakutou which was still in her hand. She stared at the one trump card that she was told not to use.

There was no other method.

"卍解 (Bankai)." She uttered. The binds around her started to break. Her blade glowed in an even more intense manner than her Shikai did.

A mirror like her merely had no choice but to reflect until it broke. In the end, that truly was her only methodology.

"卍象鏡 (Banshōkyō)."

A few seconds later, an explosion of pink petals rose into the sky as they broke through the grand massacre scene.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry that was a bit delayed. I only just got home yesterday.**

 **Anyway, we are now halfway through the story. There will be two more chapters and an epilogue after this so it will all come to its conclusion soon with next week's chapter being the longest chapter in the story.**


	4. Image 4-Assimilate or?

**Image 4-**

 **Assimilate or...?**

* * *

 **Part 1**

West Rukongai District 49 was a mostly peaceful place. It was a far cry from the affluence of the single-digit district but it was far from the lawlessness of the districts that lay beyond it. The spirits who died and were directed to life in District 49 were mostly living comfortable lives. Most of the people lived under a roof.

But, most does not cover all of its residents. A fair number of residents were generally neglected as they fell through the cracks. Shizuku was one of those souls who fell through the cracks.

She would find herself sitting, caked in dirt, near entrances to various houses, stores, and alleyways, constantly moving from awning to awning whenever she needed to sleep. As much as it would pain anyone to see, Shizuku never found neglect to be unfamiliar. She could not say for certain why but she was used to it. Perhaps she was a neglected child when she was still alive.

She never minded it though. Neglect. Loneliness. None of it ever felt truly uncomfortable to Shizuku. Those emotions always bounced off her and never left any true impact. In the end, those feelings were never permanent. They just bounced or fell off leaving nothing more than an empty shell.

Even as she walked from place to place on rainy days, she was never affected.

"Are you alright? You're covered in mud." It came from a young boy with wavy hair underneath an umbrella. The umbrella must have been covering her as well as the rain seemed to have stopped hitting her body.

Shizuku seemed to look to the boy with blank eyes.

He got no response from the girl. "Are you even in there?" He waved a hand in front of her eyes. However, it did not seem to phase her.

All she seemed to do was tilt her head. "I am…in here…?"

"You don't seem certain, do you."

Shizuku once again failed to respond. The boy's gaze was still met by a vacant stare.

"You haven't even interacted with someone in so long that you forgot how to speak…?"

She tilted her head. Her mouth opened in an attempt to let some words out but no sound ever left her lips.

The boy sighed. "I see." He then grabbed her wrist and pulled her up to her feet. "Come with me, then."

"…?" Shizuku stood up, but she let her hand slipped through his.

"Wow…you're covered in mud." The boy looked at his hand which seemed to have catch some of the mud and dirt on Shizuku's own body. "Just come with me. You don't even have a home right? So, just come with me. Baa-chan would kill me if I left someone out there in the rain like this."

He grabbed at her hand and started pulling her. This time, he tightened his grip, caking the mud between their palms and started nudging her to walk under the umbrella with him. She could not understand why he was doing such a thing for a complete stranger. But, there was a warmth that got through between the muddy hands that she did not want to let go of.

* * *

 **Part 2**

"Hah…Haahhh…"

Shizuku panted as she slowly walked down the pathway. Sweat poured profusely from her body as it fell off her face, mixed with blood trickling down the side of her head, dying parts of her usually silver hair red, with each step.

She supported herself by keeping a hand against the wall as she continued to press forward one step at a time, holding the sheath that cased her zanpakutou in her other hand.

Her sense of time had warped. She could no longer tell how far away she was from where she fought Byakuya. She could no longer even tell how much time had passed since then.

"Haahhh?" The next moment she found herself plummeting to the floor. As her body slammed into the ground, the sheath flew out of her hand and landed a few meters away from her.

Her body was starting to reach its limit.

Her muscles were screaming. Her bones felt like they were creaking.

It even felt like a part of her was cracking on the inside.

Yet...

"Not yet…" She struggled back to her feet, picked up her blade, and kept on walking no matter how much her body told her not to.

After all, there was something she had to do no matter how close a brush with death she needed to have.

* * *

 **Part 3**

 _Shizuku's Bankai, Banshōkyō, has one simple ability: mimicry. She has the capability to mimic and use any Bankai she has seen before. Unlike Maboroshikigami, which creates an illusion, Banshōkyō replicates the Bankai into a physical form. For example, if she were to have seen the Captain Commander's Bankai, she could replicate it and all of its techniques in its entirely._

 _At the same time, Banshōkyō replicates the feeling as well as the quantity of the Bankai's reiatsu. In other words, Shizuku would also be containing a direct copy of the Captain Commander's reiatsu if she ever copied his Bankai. In a sense, it's akin to bringing the reflection on a mirror to life. Everything about the target that is reflected in that mirror is copied and placed into Shizuku. This is where the problem begins to take shape._

Ichigo and Orihime read through the notes on the papers left scattered on Mamoru's bed. It was full of jargon but there were some parts that they could understand.

 _There have been multiple instances in which a Bankai's reiatsu can overwhelm it's user. According to reports by Sixth Division Captain Kuchiki, such was observed during his own battle with Kurosaki Ichigo during the ryoka invasion and ex-Captain Aizen's betrayal._

Ichigo shuddered at the observation. His mind flashed back to that day two years ago on the execution grounds.

 _"Ichigo, what a complete amateur you are! Couldn't you tell? You've been getting crushed by your own Bankai's reiatsu! Every bone in your body is creaking from the strain! You really are a hopeless case!"_

His body was being crushed by his own Bankai mid-combat. Whether it was because of his Bankai being something he was still inexperienced with or because of his own weakness was not an issue.

 _Needless to say, putting a Captain-Level Reiatsu into a Fifth Seat is dangerous. The first time she used her Bankai, Shizuku's body lost all of its strength. Under closer inspection, it seemed that use of Banshōkyō had strained her body beyond yield. It is highly likely that subsequent uses of Banshōkyō may end up killing her. No…highly likely is an understatement. It is an absolute certainty that subsequent uses will kill her. It is only a matter of time until her body breaks apart and that amount of time will decrease the more she uses Bankai._

 _I don't want to see her die like this. As such, I have devised a method to save her. The following calculations should be enough to surmise a method to prevent her from breaking apart._

The next sets of pages were filled with various calculations, archaic language, and terminology that Ichigo and Orihime were unfamiliar with. As they continued to turn the pages, they could surmise that the calculations were likely final steps or endpoints as they seemed to have no steps that could take one to another and were likely lifted from another source and compiled.

It was on the last page, however, that they reached what was likely the conclusion of this little paper Mamoru had written.

 _In summation, I will be able to make Shizuku undying. By putting Shizuku into a state where her body will naturally return to its undeformed state even when taken past yield, we can prolong her life so that she won't be killed by her own powers._

 _In order to do that, I have constructed a replica of the Hōgyoku, the same item that turned ex-Captain Aizen into an immortal._

Ichigo unconsciously began to clench more tightly at the papers in his hand. He turned to Orihime who reciprocated his gaze and nodded. Ichigo never fully understood what the Hōgyokyu was. According to Aizen, it was an item that could grant the deepest desires of those in its vicinity.

But, if that was the end result of that spiritual item, then it being in Shizuku's vicinity would not turn her undying, especially if that was never her own desire.

 _My own Hōgyoku is nowhere near as complete as the one developed by Aizen. I had neither the time nor the resources to make preparations as extensive as the ones that were likely used for that. As such, my own is merely a pale imitation of the original. However, it should be able to function. There is still one problem, however. It is highly unlikely that Shizuku, herself, wishes to become undying. As such, the only way to let that happen is to turn myself into a part of the Hōgyoku and overwrite its will. Shizuku would probably not approve of this method, but it's the optimal way to save her life._

That was the last of the new information on the papers. The rest of it was multiple rehashed summaries of what was written prior. Ichigo was unable to tell whether that was a result of a need to double and triple check the plan or of Mamoru trying to brace himself for the inevitable death he would have at the endgame of his plan.

Either way, what Ichigo and Orihime needed to do was clear.

They had to stop the zealous older brother who was even willing to end his own life for his little sister.

* * *

 **Part 4**

"Congrats, Shizuku! You're in Division 13!" Shizuku could feel her hair being ruffled by Mamoru who stood there with a grin.

"I am…"

"Come on, you should be a bit more happy about this." Mamoru's grin never once wavered, standing in stark contrast to Shizuku's unmoving stone faced expression. "You got into the division that you applied for on your first try. Show a little more emotion."

"Mamoru-kun…"

"Oh, I get it!" He clasped his fist as his eureka moment hit him at full speed. "I bet you're just sad because I'm in the twelfth and you're in the thirteenth. Don't worry, then. I'll be glad to move to the th-"

"No. That's not it."

"Ugh…such immediate denial." Mamoru's grin dropped. "You really need to be more expressive."

He put his hands on the edges of her mouth and pushed up to create a smile on her face. "Just smile more often. At least be a bit more celebratory here…"

He let go to see her maintain that forced, fake smile. She turned around to look at others and then turned to Mamoru with a different smile on her face.

"You're imitating someone else, aren't you?"

She nodded. This was a normal occurrence. She would never smile, frown, scowl, or display any emotion on her own. Her face generally stuck to a more neutral, unreadable expression and whenever she did show some emotion, it was usually the reflection of someone else she had seen.

Mamoru poked her forehead and let his finger stay there. He watched as the muscles on Shizuku's face relaxed into something more natural. It stayed for only one second before vanishing.

"You really need to stop reflecting others. At least let some of your own individuality out."

Mamoru let go. "You'll never be able to live your own life if you can't at least do that, Shizuku."

* * *

 **Part 5**

Ichigo and Orihime had shut the doors behind them and ran straight to find the now missing Shizuku and Mamoru.

The two of them only spent about five minutes going through Mamoru's notes to find all the information they needed to know regarding his plan. That meant that there was only a short window of time between now and when they felt Byakuya's reiatsu. According to the notes, Shikuku's Bankai allowed her to replicate any Bankai in its entirety. As such, it was likely Shizuku used her Bankai against Byakuya. As such, it was unlikely that either she or Mamoru would have gotten far.

The two kept running through winding path after winding path until they made it to the general location of where they felt the reiatsu spike.

As they turned one more corner, the found the body of a certain shinigami lying face down in a pool of his own blood and covered in numerous cuts. It looked like he had been cut by a plethora of miniature blades as even his embellished haori was dyed with blood to the point where the '六' on the back was barely recognizable.

"Oi, Byakuya!" Ichigo ran to Byakuya while Orihime took the initiative to start the healing process immediately. Two sets of petals from her hairpins flew over and enveloped the tattered captain in an orange healing light as his wounds started to slowly heal.

"It's going to take some time to heal all his wounds." She said while focusing on Byakuya.

"How much time do you think it will take?"

"About ten minutes." Orihime said almost immediately. "You should probably go and find Shizuku as soon as possible. I'll catch up to you once Kuchiki-san's wounds have healed up."

"Are you sure about this? Wouldn't it be better to-" Ichigo tried to give an excuse to stay back but he was cut off by some groaning from the patient on the ground.

"Uuugh…Kurosaki…Ichigo…?" His eyes opened but he seemed like he did not even have the strength to twist his neck.

"Byakuya. Don't move too much."

"Hmph…I can't say I enjoy seeing you from below like this." Byakuya's regular abrasive tone of voice seemed to be fully maintained even with his injuries.

"At least you're still in high spirits, Byakuya." Ichigo breathed a sigh of relief. "Did you run into her?"

"I originally planned to capture her and take her to the nearby 13th Division headquarters but her Bankai caught me by surprise." There was a hint of dissatisfaction in his voice.

"Thirteenth Division…?" Ichigo questioned why Byakuya would not take the fugitive back to his own division headquarters before giving a chuckle. "I see. Do you know where Shizuku headed off to?"

"Unfortunately, she got the best of me." The dissatisfaction continued to leak through his words. "If I had to guess, she likely continued on past me. I don't know how long it has been so I am unable to estimate how far she has gotten."

"That's fine. I'll go after her." Ichigo turned around to face the direction where Shizuku had supposedly gone. "Head over as soon as you're finished helping Byakuya, Inoue."

He decided not to look back to even confirm whether Orihime had agreed. No words were even necessary. He just needed to move forward without looking back and Orihime would eventually catch up.

He just needed to stick to his one goal.

* * *

 **Part 6**

Shizuku could at least run now. There was still the pain of fatigue building up in her legs but she had already maintained enough of a momentum to keep on running despite her legs screaming out. Even if she would stumble, her legs would pick themselves back up and keep moving.

Yet, despite her determination and her single-mindedness, there was one flaw. She was merely running aimlessly without a single plan.

At least that's what it seemed.

 _I should be running into him at any time now._

Mamoru was after one thing. Shizuku's safety. In that case, the best way to draw him out would be to put herself into a precarious situation.

If she ran in random directions, she would inevitably put herself into more danger. Mamoru would work to prevent that and secure her immediately.

Shizuku could say for certain that it was definitely not the best plan of action and it had far too many risks, like running into Byakuya earlier. However, it was the only method she could think of.

"Shizuku. There you are."

Shizuku's momentum vanished as she heard Mamoru's voice from behind her. But, her legs tangled together, causing her upper body to retain its momentum and plummet forward.

But, she did not fall over again. Instead, she felt herself being held by the back of her shihakushou's neck. "Honestly, Shizuku. As much as I love seeing you finally acting for yourself, you really need to at least keep watch on your well-being."

"Foooound you, Mamoru-kun." Her voice seemed monotone, evoking a lack of interest.

"Ah, I bet you're mad, aren't you?" Mamoru pressed his free hand onto his face. "You always break out the monotone when you're disinterested or just angry at me."

"Perhaps I would be less mad if you let me stand normally instead of keeping me in this awkward position…" Shizuku said, prompting Mamoru to pull her back up to standing on her two feet and letting go of her neck, allowing her to turn and face him.

* * *

 **Part 7**

The two stared at each other in awkward silence for about a minute. Neither was unsure who should speak first. The silence just droned on and on while the two hoped the other would speak up.

"You found my notes, didn't you…" Mamoru sighed. He could only hope that she would say no but he saw the papers scattered across the bed. All he could hope for was a little denial.

"…No…" Shizuku averted her gaze while her voice lowered.

Mamoru could not help but find himself surprised, not at the flimsiness of Shizuku's denial but at the fact that Shizuku attempted to deny it. He could not help but give a self-derisive chuckle at the fact that it was this kind of thing that made Shizuku finally take her own actions.

"So, that's why you're angry."

"Sacrificing your own life? Turning me undead? You don't have to do that." Shizuku grabbed at her arm and squeezed. "What was wrong with the two of us living lives as shinigami without this excess baggage…?"

"Shizuku. You realized it yourself, didn't you?" Mamoru clenched his fists. This was something he had never prepared to even confront Shizuku about despite the inevitability. As much as he prepared to save her, he had never prepared for the inevitable reality of confronting Shizuku about her inevitable fate.

"I'm dying." Even before Shizuku had seen Mamoru's notes confirming it, she was fully aware of her the danger her Bankai posed to her life. Even before and especially now after copying Captain Kuchiki's Bankai, she could feel her body's strain from using her Bankai. "My Bankai is going to eventually crush me."

"I'm not even sure how much time you have any more. Your soul is going to eventually crack and fall apart. That's why…" He reached into his shihakushou and pulled out a small orb that seemed to take the color of the night sky. "I created this to prevent that from happening."

"That's the Hōgyoku you created…"

"It's far from the magnitude of the one that was at the center of the incident from two years ago. I could only harvest a limited amount of souls and Hollows for the creation of this and even then, I had minimal resources to hide my tracks with." He then closed his hands, gripping the orb tightly. "But, this should be enough to save you. All I have to do is sacrifice my own soul to overwrite its will and I can…"

"You idiot…"

"Huh?" Mamoru looked up to see Shizuku's face. She was gritting her teeth and narrowing her eyes. She looked as if she was holding back tears. Mamoru could say that this was the first time he had ever seen her emote this much.

"Do you really think that I'd just sit quietly and let you give up your life…? You wouldn't even return to the cycle of reincarnation…you'd just be quietly embedded in that thing…"

"That's right. I would always be by-"

"I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THAT!" Shizuku shouted so loudly that it Mamoru visibly took a step back, his eyes opened wide in surprise. "What's the point of being with me if you're there but I can't talk to you. I won't even be able to feel or sense you. You'd just be there but I'd never be able to reach you in any way…you're an idiot…stupid aniki…why can't you think of how I feel…?"

"How you…" Mamoru could only watch as the surprises piled up even further. The girl who never emoted was shouting at him, baring her own heart for once. He wanted to smile so badly. He was overjoyed to see this. However, a pulsation came from his hand…no, the Hōgyoku that he was holding.

"Dammit!" With his other hand, he immediately pushed Shizuku away with as much force as he could, throwing her towards the path entrance she had come in from.

As Shizuku struggled to get back up from the floor, she saw a pure white light emanating from Mamoru. The hand that held the Hōgyoku was now pierced through with multiple bright, white thorns. At the same time, a pure white ring appeared over Mamoru's head with the Hōgyoku sitting at the center of it. Worst of all, she could feel a dense reiatsu around her. If she could describe standing in it, she would say it felt like standing inside an ocean. Her already sweaty body proceeded to profusely sweat even further.

"Mamoru…kun…?" She muttered, watching the shinigami turning to face her, only showing a vacant look in his eyes.

Without a single word in response, he unsheathed his zanpakutou. "Protect. 巴丸 (Tomoemaru)."

The blade disappeared from his hand and in its place, three large floating shields with a black and red tomoe on the center each of them appeared.

Without even a moment of delay, the three shields flew straight to ram into the recovering girl. She had barely even finished getting back on her knees. She would not be able to defend, let alone dodge. All she could do was stare wide-eyed as Mamoru's zanpakutou threatened to slam into and kill her in one blow.

"月牙天衝 (Getsuga Tenshō)!" The roar of a single name was followed by a grand bluish-white, crescent-shaped wave of reiatsu slamming into the shields and canceling their momentum and dissipating.

The three shields quickly flew back and started revolving around Mamoru.

A set of footsteps continued to grow ever closer until they stopped right next to Shizuku. Her head turned and she saw a certain familiar shinigami standing next to her. "Kurosaki…"

"Yo, Shizuku. Need a hand?" Standing next to her was Kurosaki Ichigo, the shinigami substitute she had asked for help for from the very beginning, holding his hand out to her.

"Yeah. Care to help out?" She asked, as she grabbed Ichigo's hand and pushed herself up to her feet.

* * *

 **Part 8**

"What exactly is that?" Ichigo could only fathom a guess based on what he could see and the pieces of information he had gathered.

"Mamoru-kun's Hōgyoku seems to have gone out of control and taken over his soul…At least, that's what I'm guessing happened."

That description seemed to fit with what Ichigo had deduced. From what it looked like, the so-called pale imitation of a Hōgyoku had subjugated Mamoru, opposite to what he had seen with Aizen. It was likely that the resources that had been used to make it were far less than what Aizen had, but even so, the orb had a violent reaction. It seemed like scaling down the amount of raw material would not scale down the product precisely.

At least, instead of the transcendent being Aizen had become, it had turned Mamoru something perceivable by normal beings like Shizuku.

"Do you think we can save him if we destroy the Hōgyoku?" Such a thought would have been pointless when referring to Aizen's. However, this was an entirely different case.

"It's likely…though…" Shizuku bit her lips at the thought. "There is a chance that even if we destroy it, Mamoru won't return…" He had originally planned to transfer himself into the Hōgyoku. If the wish-granting orb worked as it should, it was likely that process was already complete.

"We won't know until we try." Ichigo took a deep breath before holding his blade forward in front of him. "Even if we don't try and do it, he will be lost."

"Yeah." At this point, there was no turning back.

"卍解 (Bankai)." Ichigo calmly spoke. His body was enveloped in pitch black reiatsu for a few seconds before it all rose into the sky, leaving him surrounded by dust and clad in a black long-coat type shihakushou with black x-shaped pieces of cloth holding it together over a white undershirt and black gloves with white x-shaped marks over the forearms.

"天鎖斬月 (Tensa Zangetsu)." With a wave of his hand, and the black long-sword with three flares on it, the dust parted.

Shizuku looked to the boy for a short second before holding her own blade out in an identical fashion.

"卍解 (Bankai)." After being cloaked in an identical black reiatsu, she stood, clad in identical clothing to Ichigo and holding an identical sword. "卍象鏡 (Banshōkyō)."

"Oi. Shizuku…"

"I know…I know using my Bankai will eventually kill me but…" She clutched at the hilt. She could feel the equivalent of Ichigo's reiatsu pressing down onto her body. It was far different from Captain Kuchiki's. The quantity was at least two or three times as much. But, that was meaningless right now. All that mattered was destroying the Hōgyoku.

Ichigo stared into her eyes and then faced Mamoru. What he saw was more than enough. There was no point in stopping her.

With the tightening of his grip onto Tensa Zangetsu's hilt, the two shinigami charged straight towards Mamoru. While Ichigo aimed towards Mamoru's front, Shizuku turned around and aimed towards his back. Without a word, both infused a large amount of reiatsu in their blades and swung.

"月牙天衝 (Getsuga Tenshō)!"

The two waves clashed with opposite ends of a spherical barrier that centered around Mamoru. However, that was enough. The shields rotating around Mamoru were pushed in ever so slightly, leading the barrier to compress and crack at the contact points.

The shields floated parallel to the ground and immediately started spinning. As the swirls of black reiatsu were blown away, Shizuku immediately realized exactly what he was doing. She jumped straight over Mamoru, strung Ichigo's neck under her arm, and then slammed herself and Ichigo straight onto the ground.

"Wha-" Ichigo's outburst was immediately interrupted by three circular shockwaves that spread from the tips of the shields and cut through the walls around them.

Hadō #71. 斬華輪 (Zangerin). They had just barely dodged by getting themselves out of the plane of the shockwave. However, the onslaught was not over. The three shields placed themselves in front of Mamoru before he held his two hands out. The shields immediately slammed into the ground, breaking apart the road and causing multiple cracks.

Before Ichigo and Shizuku could get back up, the cracks had propagated and pieces of road began to float up, taking Ichigo and Shizuku along with them.

Hadō #57. 大地転踊 (Daichi Tenyō).

With the two having been thrown multiple meters in the air, they nodded at each other before Shizuku forced herself back downwards and landed in front of Mamoru's shields. She poured a large amount of reiatsu into her blade before releasing another crescent shaped wave of black reiatsu straight into the shields.

At contact with the barrier, the pre-existing cracks propagated around the sphere all the way until it shattered.

Mamoru's concentration must have broken as his kidō had stopped working. With the pull of gravity now dragging him down, Ichigo took the opportunity to pool his reiatsu into his blade and slash midair straight at the now undefended Hōgyoku.

"月牙天衝 (Getsuga Tenshō)!"

In response, Mamoru took a half-step back and the blade failed to hit the orb and instead sliced through his upper body. With the shock from the blow, Mamoru's body was brought to his knees and the shields fell to the floor.

Even though Ichigo had failed to hit the Hōgyoku the first time, he could still hit it now and end this all.

As he raised his sword to slice the orb, Mamoru's vacant face looked up and began to emit an unbearable roar.

"▂▂▃▄▃▄▅▄▅▄"

The wound began to stitch itself up at immense speed before his entire body started to radiate a blinding white light and cause a pressure wave that pushed Ichigo, the closest one to him almost ten feet back.

While he still landed on his feet, he saw a single, large white maw immediately emerge from the light and to engulf and swallow Shizuku in an instant with a single motion before it, too, was engulfed by the light.

"SHIZUKU!"

When the light vanished, all that remained was a lone figure. His black hair, skin, and shihakushou had all been dyed white while the sclera of his eyes had been painted completely black. Over where his mouth had been were a set of teeth reminiscent of those on a hollow's mask. On his chest was a protrusion resembling that of Shizuku's own chest. The Hōgyoku remained floating above his head in the center of the now spinning halo. Not a single trace of Shizuku even remained.

All that remained was the eerie form that was almost comparable to a fallen angel, completely bereft of humanity. The shields that lay on the floor rose up once again and floated nearby him.

However, his entire front was open. All of the shields floated to his sides or behind him.

Before Ichigo could even wonder why that was, Mamoru raised his hand in front of himself. Red cracks expanded in the space in front of him as if the fabric of space-time were cracking before his presence. Identical cracks simultaneously appeared two feet in front of Ichigo.

And then, as if space held no meaning before Mamoru, a great red and orange light engulfed Ichigo and the entire pathway before the second crack. At that moment, all sound and light vanished to Ichigo.

* * *

 **Part 9**

It was probably only one second since Ichigo's senses went blank before he recovered and realized what was in front of him.

A triangular, translucent orange shield. The beam had been completely bent and diffracted around it as the fragmented portions flew around and hit everything around them but what was behind the shield.

"Perfect timing, Inoue." Ichigo turned his head to see Orihime running towards him from the farthest end of the road at the corner he had entered from, holding out one of her hands in front of her.

Once she made her way to Ichigo, she could finally get a good look at Mamoru who stood beyond the cracked space. "What…happened…"

"Mamoru lost control of the Hōgyoku and his own soul…" Ichigo gripped at his sword. "…and then that thing that resulted consumed Shizuku…"

"She's…?!" Orihime was unable to let any further words come out. She closed her eyes. She gritted her teeth. But no matter what she did, she could not help but regret the fact that she came too late to prevent the worst possible scenario.

But, that no longer mattered. The combined entity that stood before them would begin its onslaught before long. What was important was that they focused on bringing this all to an end. "Is there a possibility of…"

"If I can destroy the Hōgyoku in its halo, there's a chance we can still save the both of them." It was a faint possibility. There was no telling whether the two of them would survive or even if the two of them would ever be the same again after destroying that thing.

The shield before them returned to Orihime's hairpins. No words needed to be exchanged. If there was even the faintest of possibilities, there was no reason to turn their backs on the two.

Ichigo tapped at the cracked space with his blade. But, the moment he tapped the space, his blade would not move any further. He tried infusing reiatsu into his blade to no avail. They would be unable to proceed any further or even attack if the cracks continued to exist. They would continue to remain in an unending stalemate until the space between them was restored.

"双天帰盾 (Sōten Kisshun)." An orange light surrounded the cracked space. "The moment I activate it, he will likely attack. Are you ready?"

As if fulfilling her words, Mamoru crouched down in silence, ready to jump at the moment the space was repaired.

"Yeah. Take care of the support, okay, Inoue?"

With a single nod and a simple, relaxed smile, she turned back to face Mamoru. Without another word, she spoke. "I reject."

The entirety of the cracked space was restored in five seconds.

*WHOOSH*

With zero indication, Mamoru charged straight into Ichigo, closing the gap, grabbing at Tensa Zangetsu and pushing him back at high speed.

"KUROSAKI-KUN!" At her cry, a Santen Kesshun shield formed at the entranceway to the pathway.

With her cry as a cue, Ichigo kicked his feet off the ground as he was being pushed back and slammed his feet back against the shield.

A crescent shaped wave of reiatsu erupted from Tensa Zangetsu, cutting through Mamoru's hand as well as cutting his body in half from the shoulder down.

"NOW!"

Signaling himself, Ichigo jumped off the shield, which consequently came apart, and aimed another silent Getsuga straight down onto the center of the halo. But, his attack was immediately blocked as one shield blocked the blow while the other two caught the blade and threw him towards Orihime.

Ichigo felt himself slamming into a soft surface. He shot a quick glance to see that Orihime had used her shield to catch him again before turning to see Mamoru's body completely healed as if nothing had even happened to him. The shields had even returned to their original revolution motion around Mamoru.

Without giving Mamoru a chance to move, Ichigo closed the gap and aimed to slash at his back to disable him. However, his blow was blocked immediately by another spherical barrier. Before he could pull his blade back and distance himself, Mamoru's arm grabbed at Ichigo's head and slammed it into the pavement.

Ichigo felt his consciousness blot out for a second as the ground cut into his forehead and blood began to pour out of the fresh wound on his face. Mamoru let go of the still disoriented Ichigo and held a palm over his body. It gathered reiatsu at that palm, creating a red beam of light once again and aimed it at the shinigami on the floor.

Ichigo tried to stumble to his feet but it was too late. The red reiatsu shot out at the boy from only a few inches in front of him.

* * *

 **Part 10**

Shizuku's body and mind felt light. Beyond the sensation that she was being suspended and floating, there was nothing else. It neither felt warm, nor cold. It neither felt painful nor comfortable. All she had was a simple sense of levity.

She no longer knew where she was. Her memories were still as hazy as her consciousness. So, she tried to focus. She tried to get a clear picture. As the blur in her mind came into focus, so to did her most recent memories of being consumed by a giant maw that came from the light that engulfed Mamoru.

"Mamoru-kun!" At the return of that memory, she quickly opened her eyes as her alertness slammed back into her like a truck. As if she was a marionette with her strings cut, she immediately fell from her suspension onto a dirt road only a couple of inches beneath her.

"GAH!" Her eyes opened for only a second and then shut as quickly as they opened so she could cringe in pain and clutch at the back of her head. After laying in that state for a few seconds, she finally opened her eyes and sat up to get a good look at herself and her surroundings.

As far as she could tell, she was completely unscathed. Even the cuts she had sustained from fighting Byakuya had completely vanished as there was no sign of exposed flesh or even dried blood. She even seemed to lack a trace of saliva, something she had expected to be on her as a result of being swallowed whole.

As she stood back up, she even noticed that her shihakushou was in pristine condition, with none of the wear-and-tear that comes from repeated combat. Moreover, her bankai had completely dissolved as she no longer held Tensa Zangetsu. She could not even feel the pain and tiredness that came from using her Bankai.

It was an odd state but not one that was unwelcome. It was for the best that she was in top shape as she was in an unknown location-

"No…" Her eyes widened as soon as she got a glimpse of the landscape. It was an all-too-familiar place she had once called home. "This is…West Rukongai 49…"

She had realized exactly where she had woken up. It was, after all, a location she could never forget. She had woken up in the first place she had ever met Mamoru on that rainy day so many years ago.

But, there was something wrong.

Despite the familiar looking appearance of the surroundings, it was devoid of people. While the district was never particularly an active one, there would still always be a few people running around the place in the day time whether it was an old lady sitting in a chair outside a shop or children running around, playing.

Step-by-step, Shizuku walked through the empty roads, occasionally peeking into various open shops to find the same result: emptiness.

The next place she thought to check was Mamoru's home, but it was as empty as the rest of the landscape and nothing happened.

With the first choice eliminated, she moved on to a second familiar location-a stream on the outskirts of the district near a flower field. It was a place Mamoru often took her to just laze around at. As she walked down the path towards that area, her line of sight started to slowly fall lower.

Her body was shrinking was the first thought she had but as she looked at her clothes, she realized that it was something entirely different. It was not that her body was shrinking but that her time was reversing. After all, the clothes on her body seemed to be remaining relatively the same until she found her shihakushou replaced with the uniform she wore during her days at the academy.

As she moved forward, her body's time continued to reverse until she eventually reached the physical state and appearance of her child self. Her sandals had been disappeared and her bare feet continued to slam on the dirt road as she sped up and ran ever forward to the stream.

Eventually, the sound of flowing water began to reverberate throughout the air and she eventually reached a clearing with a field of flowers. As soon as she saw the figure sitting crouched into fetal position next to the stream, her legs ground to a halt right at the edge of the flower field. "Mamoru-kun…I found you…"

It was a younger Mamoru, the same one who had reached out to her all those years ago. Despite her voice, the boy did not seem to respond at all. His muscles did not even twitch at the sound of Shizuku's voice. Perhaps he could not hear her over the sound of the stream. She probably just needed to get closer.

So, she took the first step. As her feet hit the ground, the flowers in a couple of inches of her foot began to whither and die while Mamoru began to visibly twitch. She took another. Flowers died. Mamoru twitched.

She took another.

Another.

Another.

Even as the flowers withered, she continued to make her way forward until she stood right behind him and then put her hand on his shoulder. "Mamoru-kun…"

Without even a moment of pause, Mamoru stood up and a wind spread outwards with him at its center. Shizuku took a step back on instinct and covered her eyes with her arm until the wind had stopped.

As the feeling of moving air over her body faded away, she let her arm hang back down and saw what could only be called a collapsed world. Petals that had looked like they had been stepped on lay all over the plain while each and every flower stalk seemed to have bent under some heavy weight and shriveled up as if all their water had drained from them. The once clear stream flowing not even a few feet away had grown stagnant. The blue, yet cloudy sky had been dyed a pitch black.

The world around the two had gone silent to the point that the only sound that Shizuku could hear was the sound of dead plants stalks being stepped on when Mamoru turned to face her. Yet, the stagnancy of the world around her was only matched by Mamoru's eyes. She could see absolutely nothing. She could read absolutely nothing.

"Who…are you…?" Mamoru spoke without even a hint of emotion or identity in his voice.

"What…do you mean…?" Shizuku struggled to keep her jaw from dropping at the sight of how Mamoru was. "It's me…Shizuku."

"Shi…zuku…?" He stared into Shizuku's eyes without even giving a modicum of emotion for her to read or reflect. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Houk-zawa Ka-Haru-moru."

In that one moment when he tried to introduce himself, Shizuku could finally read something. Unfortunately, it was not what she wanted to read. A plethora of emotions surfaced on Mamoru's face during that last sentence. Rage. Happiness. Fear. Sadness. As these myriad of expressions burst forth, the glint in Mamoru's eyes had constantly changed. Each time, he had taken on what seemed to be a different identity.

It was as if…

"The souls you harvested to create this Hōgyoku are possessing you…" Shizuku clutched at her arm. "You are not even in control…"

The boy was an entity who now held many individuals. But, in the process of cramming multiple individuals into one, the entity no longer held a distinct identity as it was an amalgamation of multiple diluted entities. The boy with many identities flexed his fingers while staring at the girl who claimed to have no identity of her own.

All the while, the sky started to darken even further as clouds and wisps of smoke filled the sky, taking the form of faces of people in agony.

"You are the last soul." The entity's once slow stutter had become more coherent. "You are the last individual. Let the Hōgyoku assimilate you."

There was no gap to be closed. He simply had to reach out and grab her neck. He lifted Shizuku up and clamped upon her neck with force one would not expect to see from a child of his age as a mosaic of emotions began to swell onto his face.

"G-GAH!" That unexplainable strength forced the air out of out of Shizuku's windpipe. She grabbed at his hands, trying desperately to pry his fingers off but she could only pry off one or two at best before her consciousness started to dim and the world around her started to fade into black.

As her consciousness began to dim, so too did her strength as her arms finally dropped to the side.

"Dammit…Agh…I won't let…" Even as she let these final words of resistance out, she was unable to find any plan of action. There was nothing she could do. Like Mamoru, she would eventually be completely assimilated into the Hōgyoku and there would be no trace of her self left. If she failed to act, it would be all over. She would become part of the world around them.

 _The world around me…?_ She let her eyes drift to the stream. There was still one last hope. She could still salvage all of this.

She slowly curled her right hand, as if she were holding a blade. "Reflect. 幻鏡 (Maboroshikigami)."

Her reiatsu burst out, stunning the entity and loosening her grip completely. She fell to the ground on her feet and her consciousness quickly returned. She jumped three steps back and looked around her before letting out a smile.

Three shields were floating around her. Mamoru's shields.

"Of course you're still in there…otherwise this world wouldn't have taken this shape…" Shizuku stifled the urge to let out a self-derisive chuckle. "Don't worry Mamoru. I'll get you out of there. It's my turn to save you now."

With that simple declaration, the mirror girl was ready. That one vow was all she needed to make. The girl named Shizuku would finally take action.

* * *

 **Part 11**

Shizuku was still a shinigami. Even if she stood as a young girl who looked like she was no older than nine, the years that had passed since she had met Mamoru still happened. She was even swallowed up as a shinigami. There was no way she would be unable to use Maboroshikigami like she always had.

She let the illusory shields stand, spread around her as she took stance. She waited as the entity crouched onto all fours like a wild animal ready to pounce.

Silence reigned as the two stood, staring off at each other for what seemed to be hours. Meanwhile, the clouds of agonized souls began to darken and pour rain onto that desolate flower field. Lightning flashed and thunder roared as the children became soaked by the pouring droplets.

With a roar match the hammer of the heavens, his legs kicked off the ground as his right hand reached out to grab at Shizuku's throat. With a swift motion of her hand, she brought one of her shields into his path, stopping the entity's motions. However, with another motion, his hand began to push forward and phase through the shield as he once again picked up momentum.

It was inevitable that Maboroshikigami would fail to completely work on a diluted enemy which only partially understood Tomoemaru. However, Shizuku was fully aware of that.

The entity's hand came flying in once again with only a few centimeters separating Shizuku from asphyxiation. In response, she simply sidestepped and pointed one finger at the entity's chest.

"Hadō #1. 衝 (Shō)."

Shizuku's kidō collided with the entity's chest, throwing him many yards back, straight into the stagnant stream. Without a moment's hesitation, she immediately let the shields rotate to behind her and rushed to the stream, closing the distance in a second.

As her mud-covered feet landed in the water, Shizuku looked around to find the entity who had been thrown into the murky stream, letting each of the splashes from her steps muddy her legs even further. He was missing. She took step by step, searching for the entity with an air of caution.

But, that caution was for naught as he splashed out from the water behind her only a meter away. Before she could even fully turn around to face him, he grabbed at her neck and pushed her down into the water. She struggled to get back up, but could only find herself muddying the rest of her exposed body and her clothes. At best, she could only get herself to lay on her back while her body was mostly submerged, leaving only her face out of the water.

Like her, the entity was covered in mud. Its plethora of emotions remained in constant fluctuation.

The three shields began to move until they were a meter over the two. Shizuku knew the rain would still pour through but she wanted to at least try to make that futile motion.

"Are…you alright…? You're…cov…ered…in mud." She could feel her breath being forced out with every attempt to push another syllable.

But, as those words left Shizuku's throat, she could feel the hands squeezing her throat start to loosen. A set of warm droplets different from the cold rain seemed to also fall to her face.

Shizuku started to smile as she saw that they were coming from his eyes.

"You haven't even interacted with someone in so long that you forgot how to speak…?" She could speak without muted pauses between syllables.

The entity stared. He tried to speak. His mouth opened up, yet no words would come out.

"I see." With a warm smile, Shizuku reached her mud-covered hand and gently held the entity's cheek. "Just come with me. You don't even have a home right? So, just come with me. Baa-chan would kill me if I left someone out there in the rain like this."

As if the rain, the desolation, and the agony of the souls were merely a mirror with a rock thrown at it, the world around them glowed a bright white and completely shattered, leaving behind the clear stream, vibrant field of flowers, and a blue, cloudless sky.

"Yeah. She would kill us if either of us did that." Mamoru picked himself off of his knees and held a hand out towards Shizuku.

Shizuku stared at it with a look of surprise before smiling again and letting him help her get up. "She certainly would."

* * *

 **Part 12**

Ichigo tried to stumble to his feet but it was too late. The concentrated red reiatsu shot straight from Mamoru's hand into Ichigo. But, as soon as the reiatsu shot out, it all dissipated.

"Huh…?" Ichigo's utterance was immediately cut short as he saw Mamoru clutching at the Hōgyoku while writhing in pain. Before he could clutch at it, though. That was when Ichigo saw something he had not expected.

"▂▂▃▄▃▄▅▄▅▄"

Mamoru's roar reverberated through the area as he used his shields to slam into a still disoriented Ichigo and throw him back to Orihime, who once again caught him in her shield. "Are you alright, Kurosaki-kun?" She asked, letting her shield down and then reforming it in front of the two of them.

"I'm fine." Ichigo rubbed his face with his sleeve to wipe off some of the blood that was pouring down from his forehead. "A little disoriented but I'll be fine. But, that's not the issue here. Look." He pointed to the Hōgyoku.

Orihime squinted until she saw it. "Is it…cracking…?"

"It looks like it. Do you think it will make the shield easier to break?"

"I…doubt it."

"I see." Ichigo sighed. That meant the fight would not get any easier.

"But…" Orihime looked at the downcast Ichigo and gave a smile. "I think Shizuku-chan and Mamoru-kun are fighting from within it. There's no point if we don't give it our all either."

Ichigo's downcast look turned into one of momentary surprise before he turned to Orihime and smiled back. "Yeah." Ichigo returned to stance. "Though…I don't have any ideas aside from keep hitting him as hard as I can."

"Can you draw him in to me?" Orihime asked without hesitation.

"Huh?" Ichigo found himself falling into a valley somewhere between surprise and confusion.

"I might be able to weaken his shield with the Rikka if you can get him close to me. If you can pin him against my shield, I think we can break through." Orihime kept staring into Ichigo's eyes with a determination that could have rivaled his own. "Please. Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo closed his eyes and gave a deep exhale. He turned his head back to face Mamoru and shifted his eyes back to Orihime for one second. With a single nod, he rushed forward. That was all they needed.

Closing the distance between him an Mamoru in an instant, he fired of a Getsuga Tenshō at the still writhing Mamoru. The barrier continued to block the wave of black reiatsu as Mamoru finally paid attention to his surroundings and reached out at Ichigo's head once again as soon as the attack's force was neutralized.

However, Ichigo dodged. He moved his head before Mamoru's hand could even reach him.

 _His reaction time has slowed down!_

With that thought, any hesitation he held dropped as he swung his blade once again, firing another Getsuga Tenshō, slamming the attack straight into his now exposed hand.

"▂▂▃▄▃▄▅▄▅▄"

As Mamoru cried out in pain, he reeled his arm back into the barrier and clutch at it.

Taking the opportunity from the pain reaction, Ichigo moved around to the other side of the shield and prepared another Getsuga Tenshō. His blade became a container for concentrated black reiatsu once again. He aimed at one of the shields and slammed the blade straight into it while kicking off, pushing the barrier straight towards Orihime.

"INOUE!"

Taking the signal, she held out the hairpins in front of her. "四天抗盾 (Shiten Kōshun)!" Eight of the petals on her hairpins took the shape of a triangular shield which saw Mamoru's own barrier crashing into it at full force with Ichigo continuing the force.

"双天帰盾 (Sōten Kisshun)!" The remainder of her hairpins formed the aura of rejection focused on the center of the shield.

With the collision, lights flared at the corners of the shield and then rushed inwards to its centroid, where Mamoru's barrier and her rejection aura were in direct contact. The converged light flew off the shield, colliding with Mamoru's barrier. At the moment of contact, the force of the piercing attack dropped as the light weakened.

"I." The light of the attack started to glow vibrantly. She would reject her attack weakening. She would reject this wall that stood in their way. She would reject all of the suffering Shizuku and Mamoru were undergoing. With each weakening of the attack the shield would deform further and further. "REJECT!"

A crack started to propagate from the point of contact. The attack weakened once again and was revitalized. With her final cry, Orihime's attack broke through, shattering the entire barrier like glass hit with stones.

"KUROSAKI-KUN!"

"Right!" Without a moment's hesitation, Ichigo stopped his push and kicked upwards. "月牙天衝 (Getsuga Tenshō)!" He roared, swinging his blade down onto the Hōgyoku floating above the still writhing Mamoru.

The black wave of reiatsu engulfed the Hōgyoku and the halo. And then…

* * *

 **Part 13**

After finally standing up in that clear stream underneath the equally clear sky, Shizuku and Mamoru noticed oddities beginning to rise around them. The sky began to look like it was separating into shards, much like a smashed mirror's pieces slowly falling down.

The world around was cracking. Even the light from the sun seemed to bend, collide, and break as their own appearances distorted.

"What's going on…?" Shizuku's eyes flitted around, taking in the distortion around her.

"The Hōgyoku's…breaking…" Mamoru's eyes widened.

At least, that's what it seemed to Shizuku before the scenery around her cracked apart and fell away, leaving the two standing in perfectly even landscape of golden light. As she looked around, she could see nothing around for miles. All she saw was a flat, level plain with gold-tinted bubbles rising from the ground. She turned back to face Mamoru to see that he no longer took the appearance of a young child but instead took the appearance of the shinigami he was before he had been taken by the Hōgyoku.

She looked at her body to see that the same had happened to her.

"I guess my plan was never meant to work…Heh…" He had turned to look to his side while giving off a self-derisive smile.

"Mamoru…" Shizuku once again grabbed at his hand. "That never mattered."

"Yeah…you're right. That really did not matter at all." Mamoru placed his free hand onto his face to cover half of it. "Sorry, Shizuku. It looks like I was an idiot to the bitter end…"

"I told you. None of that ever mattered…Let's just go home…" She pulled at his hand.

"No…" Mamoru shook his head. "I can't go home. This is it for me…"

"What are-" Before Shizuku could finish her question, she saw it. Mamoru's body was starting to glow an identical gold to the rest of the landscape. His body was starting to emit the same sparkling gold bubbles that were being released by the ground as it began to lose mass from the back forwards.

"I guess it was inevitable. Unlike you, even if it was only temporary my consciousness was assimilated into the Hōgyoku and became part of it, I'm still attached to this thing. _My will has become a part of it._ " Mamoru refused to budge as his body started to become lighter. "In the end, you were the only consumed soul to retain its individuality from beginning to end…but…that's fine with me."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" Shizuku cried out. Tears streamed from her eyes. Her emotions reached critical mass and broke through once again. "WEREN'T YOU THE ONE WHO TOLD ME TO LEARN TO FINALLY LIVE, MAMORU?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING RUNNING AWAY BEFORE I COULD DO THAT? DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME AFTER TELLING ME THAT!"

"What are _you_ talking about?" Mamoru's voice cut through Shizuku's tirade. "That selfishness. That emotion. You've already done it. I don't know what it was that caused it but you've already learned to live. _The fact that you're not even fading away right now is proof of that._ You are alive. At this moment, Shizuku is definitely living." He placed his hand on the head of the crying silver-haired girl. "As an older brother there's nothing that could make me happier."

"But, if you leave me…who will…"

"You already have good friends to support you, Shizuku."

"Huh?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime…" Mamoru listed off those two names. "I remember those two desperately searching for you and even trying to influence the Seireitei to prevent a death sentence for you. Is that not enough? I think those two are wonderful friends for you."

"But they still won't replace you…"

"Of course, they won't. But, people come and go. You were going to eventually start walk a path without me one day. It just so happened that that day ended up being today." Mamoru sighed. "But, don't worry. You'll be able to do it. After all, you're alive right now. So I'll trust that Iroha Shizuku can do it."

Shizuku clutched at Mamoru's hand. She held as tightly as she physically could. No matter how much she wanted to see Mamoru live, she knew it was inevitable. "Can I just hold onto you until the end?" She asked, averting her gaze by looking down to their feet.

"Sure. You can do that…" His body was mostly gone. All that was truly left was the front half of his body. "Farewell, Shizuku."

"Farewell…Onii-chan." With those last words, the rest of Mamoru's body became a golden light that dissipated back into the golden light show around them.

As her hand dropped down, no longer supported by Mamoru's own, the golden light glowed and glowed until not even she could be seen in that golden glare.

* * *

 **Part 14**

With the sound of a window breaking, the Hōgyoku shattered while the halo around it was vaporized. Ichigo landed himself next to Orihime after making the jump.

"We did it…" Orihime spoke with a sigh.

In contrast, Ichigo remained in stance. Even if the Hōgyoku had shattered, he still had to remain cautious considering what he had dealt with when he fought Aizen.

However, his worries were unnecessary. The shields all turned white before they fell apart like papier-mâché. The whiteness of the body began to show cracks from its head to its chest and down to its feet and fell apart into multiple fragments much like over-dried paint. The fragments fell off one by one and atomized as they each hit the ground.

As the thin outer shell fell away, they revealed a silver-haired shinigami standing in a daze with a tattered shihakushou.

"Shizuku!" Ichigo finally relaxed his posture as he saw the girl standing with a few white fragments still attached.

"Shizuku-chan!"

The girl whose name was called lost her balance as she fell forward. As Ichigo and Orihime caught her before she could fall to the ground, her eyes shut. She was unconscious but still breathing.

"That's a relief." Ichigo sighed as he spoke.

"But Mamoru-san…" Orihime stopped herself. The man never showed up. Even if she continued to speak, he would never show up. In the end, all she ever got was silence.

* * *

 **Part 15**

Shizuku felt what seemed to be hard metal pressed against her chest and abdomen. Her legs were being held up and her arms were wrapped around someone's neck. As far as she could tell, someone was carrying her on their back. But, out of all the things she noticed, there was a damp feeling on her face that seemed to also cling to the back of the clothes her face lay against.

"Uuuuugh…" She let at a groan as she finally started to lift her head from her chauffeur's back. Her vision was still blurry as if muddled out by a thin film of water refracting the light that could reach her pupils. All she could really see in front of her was a blur of bright orange. She tried to focus but all she saw was that distorted orange.

She picked up her right arm and rubbed at her eyes. "Ah, Shizuku. You're awake."

"Are you alright, Shizuku-chan? You were crying ever since you cast off the Hōgyoku's shell."

She pulled her sleeve off her eyes and saw the two figures speaking. One was Inoue Orihime, running to her side. The other was Kurosaki Ichigo, who had turned his head back when he had heard Shizuku groaning.

"I…was crying…?"

Shizuku looked back to her sleeve, noticing the damp feeling of the sleeve now pressed against her arm.

Shizuku gritted her teeth and pressed her hand to her face. "…and Mamoru…?"

Neither of them answered. Neither of them knew how to answer. All they could do was stare with downcast expressions as they struggled to come up with a way to break the bad news to her.

But, even that silence was enough for Shizuku. She knew they meant to no harm by keeping silent. They were trying to be friends, after all. It was not like they wanted to let her break from the silence. They simply wanted to think of a way to say things without breaking her.

"So, I was the only one that emerged from the Hōgyoku…I…expected as much…" Tears began to fall from her face once again. "I just…I didn't want to lose him…"

"Feel free to cry up there as much as you want to." Ichigo said with a heavy sigh. He was far too used to dealing with the dead, themselves, and not the people they left behind. But, even so, he knew how someone who had lost someone close to them felt. He knew that he could not rush them. After all, even he had not been able to fully shake off the shadow of nine years prior.

"No." With a sniffle, she wiped off as much of the tears as she possibly could. "Crying can wait until later. I can cry once we're finally off the battlefield. So, let me down. I'll walk on my own two feet. Otherwise…"

Even as she was suppressing tears, there was not a hint of hesitation in her eyes. As such, Ichigo could find no reason to deny her request. He carefully, let her down off his back and allowed her to hit the ground with her own two feet.

Shizuku stumbled around at first as her legs struggled to keep balance. She grabbed at her head as a spell of vertigo ran through her brain.

"Are you alright, Shizuku-chan? I can-" Orihime ran over to Shizuku only to be stopped by the girl holding her hand out as a sign to stop.

"It's fine…I'm just a bit winded…" Shizuku immediately denied any offer Orihime could have possibly given her for help. She stumbled as she nearly tripped in the first few steps but came to stand up normally after a bit of time. "See? I'm perfectly fine."

Ichigo and Orihime looked to each other. They definitely were not buying it. But, it was not up to them to expose her guts. It was up to Shizuku, herself. "Alright, then. Let's go." With just those words from Ichigo, the three headed off into the direction of the main Senkaimon.

However, escape would not be as easy as they had hoped it would be. They had made it to the plaza, but it seemed that they had yet to clear the biggest hurdle. The three of them ground to a halt as they realized how tall a hurdle stood before them. At the very end of the road, standing at the center of the gate's plaza was the old man revered to be the strongest of the shinigami: Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.

* * *

 **Part 16**

"Of course, it wouldn't be that easy…" Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu's hilt with tense muscles. Orihime readied herself and her hairpins to start support. Meanwhile, Shizuku grabbed at the hilt of her own blade and prepared stance. Her body tremored as her muscles refused to stay still, making ever so small vibrations.

Standing in front of them was the imposing figure of the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, clad in his Shihakushou and haori, holding his wooden staff to the floor.

"Jii-san…" Ichigo gritted his teeth. In the end, despite the loophole-filled orders, the Captain-Commander was standing before them to apprehend the traitor. In the end, this had all been a farce to lead the traitor back into the custody of the Gotei 13. There was never any chance of escape from the beginning.

As that thought raced through Ichigo's head, his reiatsu began to leak out. A light cyan colored energy began rising in streams around Ichigo from the floor. "Was this all according to your plan? Were you just using that loophole to bring us here?! Was that what all this was about?!"

"Silence, Kurosaki Ichigo." In contrast to Ichigo's rage, Yamamoto stood firm. There was not a single opening on either his body or his demeanor. The calm elder of the Gotei 13 stood in front of them like a mountain, immovable.

Ichigo's reiatsu flared up even further, widening the streams of light which fluctuated in width. "DO YOU REALLY THINK I CAN REMAIN SILENT AFTER YOU PLAYED US ALL FOR-"

"SILENCE, KUROSAKI ICHIGO!" With his shout, a burst of heat roared out with Yamamoto at the center. The heat began to distort the light around Yamamoto as the frequency of infrared radiation began to become more and more visible through fluctuations in the light distortion. This was not an act of violence but a simple show of force to silence any dissent, a simple action fitting of the Gotei 13's elder.

Ichigo could not push any words further out of his mouth as the three could only stare at Yamamoto and wait.

Yamamoto's eyes moved from one person to another. From Ichigo to Orihime, from Orihime to Shizuku, and finally back to Ichigo.

"The order I gave was for the capture and custody of the shinigami named Iroha Shizuku." It was a simple declaration of intent. Yet, it was incomplete. "Unfortunately, I see no shinigami by that name here."

"What…?" Ichigo's rage was replaced by complete confusion. His reiatsu streams began to thin out until they disappeared. He looked to Orihime and Shizuku who shared his confusion.

"I just came to see the humans off before you headed back to the world of the living." Whatever heat had been coming off of Yamamoto seemed to have disappeared. All that remained was the chill of the evening sky that permeated the plaza underneath the sky dyed orange by the sunset.

"I…see…" Ichigo could feel his mouth forming what had been the biggest grin he could make. The illusion of the greatest obstacle had crumbled into nothing. He had no clue why. After all, the Captain-Commander was known for being far, far more brutal than this. But, he absolutely refused to question it.

"Come on, Shizuku. Inoue. Let's go back to Karakura Town." With a nod, the three walked forward. They walked straight past the Captain-Commander who simply stood like the immovable mountain he was and let them pass.

As the door to the Senkaimon opened before them, Shizuku turned back to face the back of the Captain-Commander. She did not speak a single word of gratitude. She simply gave a bow of thanks. It was unknown if the Captain-Commander would ever see it or ever think anything of the gesture but she felt that it was something she absolutely needed to do. It was her farewell, after all.

She turned back to see Ichigo and Orihime looking back to her. "Is that all you needed to do?"

"I…no longer bear any attachments. That was more than enough of a farewell for me."

"Alright then. Let's go." Ichigo, Orihime, and Shizuku turned to face the light that shined through the gate and walked through.

* * *

 **Part 17**

"I didn't expect you to actually let them go, sir." As Yamamoto headed away from the plaza, he happened upon Captain Ukitake. The fact that he had been waiting in that location meant it was likely that he was watching the encounter from a safe distance to assist in ending any scuffle that may have arisen.

"And I was not expecting you to be so conspicuous while watching from a distance." Yamamoto scoffed at his former pupil. "That level of concealment is not something one would use if they were trying to evade detection. Were you planning to intervene if pressure did not work out for you?"

"It was a bit of a haphazard plan but there wasn't much I could put together in that situation with that little time." Ukitake chuckled. The situation had been diffused even without a need for his own pressure. In the end, he was unneeded. "So, why did you decide to let her go, sir?"

Yamamoto turned and looked back to the gate. "There was no longer any point. By the time we could start any form of interrogation, she would no longer be able to answer any questions. Healing Kidō would not be able to reverse the process of what has begun. They likely realize it too."

"I'm sorry, sir. I do not follow." Ukitake, who had not been able to see Shizuku up close was unable to tell what Yamamoto was talking about.

"The shinigami named Iroha Shizuku will die soon. At the very least, she should be able to die the way she wishes to."

* * *

 **Interlude IV**

The Dangai was surprisingly calm. Normally, one would have to worry about encountering the Kōtotsu or evading the Current, but neither of them seemed to be in their path. The path to Karakura Town was a smooth one.

Shizuku was definitely grateful for that. But, despite the smoothness, it was unlikely that they would make it back in time.

She was dying. The more she continued to exert herself, the more quickly her body would crack apart. Even as she ran behind Ichigo and Orihime, her body was continuously screaming at her to stop exerting herself.

She had nobody to blame but herself for overusing her bankai. Concurrently copying Byakuya's and then Ichigo's bankai had put far too much pressure on her spirit.

In all likelihood, she would die running, breaking apart as they made it to the last step. But…

 _I don't want to die like this…_

There was no way, she could die like that. That was far from what it meant to be alive. If she was going to die, she at least wanted to…

She slowly decelerated until her feet had stopped moving. She stared forward at the other two who had realized that Shizuku had stopped running and followed suit.

"Are you tired, Shizuku?"

She just needed some excuse. She just needed to find some way to let it all go out with a bang.

"卍解 (Bankai)." Her body was cloaked in a pitch black reiatsu before it all rose up into the sky, leaving her in a black longcoat-type Shihakushou with a black longsword in her hand . ""卍象鏡-天鎖斬月 (Banshōkyō-Tensa Zangetsu)."

"Shizuku, what are you doing?!"

"If you keep on using that it will crush you!"

Shizuku shut out the cries for her to stop the best she could. Instead, she focused on contorting her face to the best of her ability. It was something she was not used to, but, she raised an eyebrow while giving an asymmetrical grin.

"Heh…Ahahahahaha!" From her diaphragm, she gave out both a hearty and menacing laugh. "You guys are all idiots. You've played right into my hand."

She would play the villain. She simply needed to give Ichigo a reason to fight her.

"Now that the Gotei 13 thinks I've escaped, my goal of killing off the Captain-Commander and throwing the Seireitei into chaos is still within my grasp."

She just needed to give off those typical villain lines she had read in countless books and regurgitate them. It did not matter if she was convincing. It did not matter if she was menacing. She just needed to force them to believing the off-chance of her being a dangerous entity.

"Shizuku-chan…"

"But, first I'll kill the two of you. Then, I'll return to the Seireitei and enact my own vengeance." She knew her monologue was shaky. It was self-contradictory. But…

 _Please, just bear with my selfishness one last time! That's all I ask for!_

As if he could hear that thought, Ichigo held Zangetsu in front of himself. "Inoue. Take a few steps back. I don't know what's wrong with Shizuku right now, but…I'll save her. "卍解 (Bankai). 天鎖斬月 (Tensa Zangetsu)."

With a smile Shizuku watched Ichigo stand in his own Bankai, ready to fight back. Without a single word between them, they charged at each other, blades in hand.

* * *

 **A/N: With this, we turn to the final act of the story. Before I put my pen down, allow me to address one of the reviews.**

 **It's not just Momo who has not interacted much with Ichigo in the canon. Kira, Oomaeda, Isane, Nanao, and many more of the Vice-Captains have not had much interaction with Ichigo if any. In fact, his sphere of influence really extends only to the Vizard Captains, Divisions 6, 10, and 11.  
**

 **With that, I lay my pen down until we meet again for the final confrontation of this story.**


	5. Image 5-One-on-One, One-to-One

**Image 5-**

 **One-on-One, One-to-One**

* * *

 **Part 1**

The two figures draped in black clashed as the edges of their blades slammed into each other, producing a large pressure wave that roared throughout the Dangai. With each clash, the two would draw back a step, pull back their blades, and clash again.

Orihime stood watching from behind her translucent orange shield as she avoided the pressure waves coming at her almost once every second. She watched as the two danced with their blades, swinging at each other while trying to be a half-step early.

At least, that's what it seemed at first glance. But, as she kept watching the battle going in in front of her, something became more and more apparent.

Ichigo was purely on the defensive. While Shizuku was repeatedly swinging and pressing inwards, Ichigo spend the entire time defending and parrying each blow. In fact, which each swing, her actions became more and more wild and unpredictable.

Switching hands between slashes. Making varied slash arcs. Continuously altering movement patterns. Taking risky positioning during attacks.

Orihime was not an expert when it came to fighting, but even she knew that these types of wild high-risk, high-reward movements were generally tactics people only used when they were cornered. But, Shizuku was using those tactics from the very beginning.

But, Orihime noticed something even stranger than those wild movements. On that silver-haired girl's face was a smile of pure exhilaration.

* * *

 **Part 2**

There was no doubt in Ichigo's mind that Shizuku was putting on a facade. Regardless of how he saw it, there was no reason for Shizuku to suddenly reveal herself as a villain. From the beginning, she really was simply a girl cornered by terrible coincidences.

But, her actions now still made little sense to him. Ichigo wanted to think that Shizuku could trust him.

 _So…why….?_

She was smiling. Ichigo was completely certain that she was smiling as if she was enjoying every second her blood rushed through her body. She continued to maintain that smile with each passing strike.

But…

 _Why do you feel so terrified, Shizuku?!_

It was all a mask. With each clash between their blades, his read on her emotions became clearer and clearer. He began to understand what she was feeling. It was the amalgamation of pure ecstasy, utter terror, constant pain, and deep sadness.

Despite all this, Shizuku pressed forward without giving Ichigo an inch. With the clash of their blades, the two jumped back before Shizuku charged inwards again.

"Why…Kurosaki…?" Ichigo felt his body stiffen as her soft, voice reached his ears. He pulled his blade up to parry Shizuku's next slash only to find his stance stiffen half way.

As soon as Shizuku's blade hit, the force threw Ichigo's unfortified body up and back a few feet. While midair, Ichigo struggled to regain his bearings, preparing his body so he could land on his feet. He just needed to worry about her dashing towards him once he landed.

At least, that was what he had hoped for but Shizuku was unwilling to give even a moment of respite. She forced a jet black reiatsu to swirl around her, emanating from the flares on the blade she held in front of herself. As she pulled her blade up above her head, the reiatsu shook and snaked around her.

 _DAMMIT! She's going to-_

"GETSUGA TENSHŌ!" With the fierce downwards swing of her blade, the reiatsu whipped into a crescent shape and flew towards the airborne Ichigo. Ichigo swung his blade to release one of his own in counter but the attack slammed straight into his blade pushing him even further back.

"GETSUGA TENSHŌ!" With another cry, he swung his blade and slammed a jet black reiatsu wave of his own into Shizuku's, causing the two to collide and fall apart into smoke.

Without giving Ichigo a moment to regain his bearings, Shizuku launched herself straight off of the ground into the smoke. As she emerged through the smoke, right above Ichigo she slammed her blade down once again, only to have it once again blocked at the last second.

"Getsuga Tenshō." With a soft voice, she once again called out her attack. Rather than swinging her blade to create another wave, the crescent-shaped wave formed at the edge of the wave and engulfed Ichigo, throwing him back to the ground once again. "This isn't enough…"

Ichigo could have sworn he heard her mutter this as he kicked back, throwing himself back to the ground, and landing on the ground feet first while stabbing Tensa Zangetsu into the ground to quickly zero his momentum.

With his body stopped, he pulled his blade off the ground and raised it in front of himself in anticipation of another attack. As expected, she fell down from the sky above, storing another Getsuga Tenshō in her blade as she slammed straight down onto Ichigo's blade, and pushing Tensa Zangetsu down.

Ichigo felt a warm sensation on his left shoulder, followed by the sensation of liquid flowing down from that point. His eyes quickly turned to his left to see that the width of Shizuku's blade had fully embedded itself into his shoulder.

"STOP HOLDING BACK ON ME! THIS ISN'T ENOUGH FOR ME TO CALL IT BEING ALIVE, KUROSAKI ICHIGO!" Once again, her sword, inundated with black reiatsu, began to release the stored attack.

 _DAMMIT!_ Ichigo reflexively shot a Getsuga Tenshō of his own, throwing his body backwards once again. But, as his body ground to a halt and he once again held up his sword in anticipation for more attacks, no other attacks came.

Instead, he saw Shizuku's body covered in sweat to the point where her shihakushou had stuck to it all over her upper body. Her chest was rising and depressing at erratic patterns and her mouth was wide open, letting out hot breaths, while she struggled to keep both eyes fully open.

"Shizuku…"

"Kurosaki…please…stop holding back on me…" Shizuku forced those words out while continuing to pant.

"Shizuku! The entire point of us returning was to save you! Don't you-"

"NO! You're the one who's refusing to understand!" Her eyes opened wide as she shouted out towards him, only for her eyes to return to their half-closed position. "I'm dying…Every time I used my Bankai today, I've been accelerating my own soul's breakdown. Even before I started this, my soul would not hold by the time we made it out of the Dangai. That's why…"

Shizuku gulped. "Don't hold back, Kurosaki. Let me fight to the bitter end…so that my last memory can at least be the peak of my life."

In that instant, she charged right in front of Ichigo. But, as soon as he brought up his blade to parry her attack, she slid the edge of her blade along his down towards the guard. As the guards collided, an explosion of black reiatsu engulfed the two of them.

* * *

 **Part 3**

A mix of sweat and blood dripped onto the ever flowing gray waves of the Dangai's floor from Shizuku's leg. It was flowing from a large cut on Shizuku's right shoulder. She took her left hand off her blade and touched her wound with it before pulling her hand off. She looked at it and gave an exasperated smile before putting her hand back on the hilt of her blade.

"So, you reflexively used Getsuga and pushed me back." She spoke, staring into Ichigo's eyes. There was a pure resolve in his eyes. It was as if any wavering he held before had been a thing of the past. "That's good…Fight me at your fullest…"

She attempted to rush towards him again, only to find that he had disappeared and ended up right in front of her, swinging his blade. Shizuku tried to block with Banshōkyō only to have Tensa Zangetsu's blunt end slammed into Banshōkyō's, throwing her back a few feet.

"I've finally figured it out." Ichigo said before he closed the gap again in a step. "You don't want to die at all…"

Shizuku gritted her teeth, taking a half-step back and lifting her own blade, as Ichigo swung his blade down again. As the two blades collided, the two remained still. "Of course I don't want to die!" She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth again. Tears that she had tried to suppress had been welling up in her eyes and began to sneak out from underneath her eyelids. "I want to live! But that isn't possible. My body is doomed to die! That's why-"

"I'll save you then."

Shizuku jumped back at the sound of those words. As if to reject them, she jumped over to right behind Ichigo and attempted to slash at him, only to find herself blocked again as Ichigo had held his blade behind his back and blocked. "Those are nothing more than hollow words…Do you even have a plan to do that…to save me before my body falls apart?"

"I don't…"

"Then, forget about it and fight me!"

"But, that doesn't mean I should give up on you…"

He swung his blade, throwing Shizuku's back while quickly pivoting to face her. She lunged towards him once again, clashing her blade with his. "What makes you think that you will be able to do that?!"

She continued to go around Ichigo to slash him from a blind spot multiple times, only to continue finding herself not being able to land a single blow. "I'M DYING! I ONLY HAVE A FEW MINUTES LEFT! WHAT ABOUT THIS DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?! JUST LET ME FEEL ALIVE FOR ONE LAST TIME IN MY LIFE!"

"It's not a matter of being able to. I want to…and I have to save you, Shizuku. That's all that matters."

"Fine, then." She distanced herself from Ichigo, realizing why her attacks were no longer even phasing Ichigo. In the past few minutes of their fight, her body was being crushed by her Bankai's spiritual pressure. Ichigo's movements only seemed to be moving faster. But, in reality, she was getting slower.

She could no longer prolong this fight. "If you really think you can do it, then show me right now. This is everything I have left."

The remainder of her reiatsu swirled around her and snaked towards the blade.

"One final attack, huh…" Ichigo responded in kind. His reiatsu mirrored Shizuku's own he channeled it into Tensa Zangetsu.

The two stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds as their reiatsus coalesced.

Without a single word, the two kicked off, charging towards each other with their attacks in tow.

And then, the shinigami named Iroha Shizuku died.

* * *

 **A/N: With that, we finish the last main chapter. Yes, it was kind of a short chapter (and definitely the fic's shortest chapter so far) but I did not want to drag this battle on to be too long. Plus, when I started to write this fic, I wanted to write it much like how a _To Aru Majutsu no Index_ novel would be structured with four to five multi-part chapters and an Epilogue. In a way, this was definitely written as if it would have been a plot for a Bleach movie or a short filler arc. **

**The Epilogue should be released around the same time next week~**


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue-**

 **Uncertain Future, Certain Infinity**

Ichigo felt a cool breeze brushing across his body as he took a leisurely walk in the morning on his way to school. Despite the long-sleeved blazer he wore, Ichigo could still feel the breeze entering through the openings on his clothing. It was a simple, cool breeze uncharacteristic of late May weather. Nevertheless, it rustled through the leaves on the trees creating an almost soothing melody.

"Kurosaki-kun!"

But, as Ichigo walked, he heard the sound of Orihime's voice coming from a few feet in front of himself, breaking through that melody. She was standing in front of the gate to a certain run down candy store. Next to her was a certain irritable man in hat and clogs.

"You came too, Kurosaki-san?" Urahara spoke in his usual tone of feigned surprise.

"Why are you even pretending to be surprised?" Ichigo, with his usual scowl emblazoned on his face. stopped in front of the two people at the entrance.

"Come on, Kurosaki-san. You really should learn to lighten up a bit. Your sense of humor's going to rot even further than it already has at this rate." Urahara waved his fan in front of himself towards Ichigo while having fun chuckling to himself. "That being said, I was given notification that Iroha-san's and Houki-san's funerals are going to be held together soon. It's not going to be a large funeral, so I was informed to let the two of you know." His smile dissolved into a more neutral face as he delivered the news.

A somber silence pervaded in that lone area as the Ichigo and Orihime turned to look into each other's eyes. Neither could tell what to think in such a moment. They had thought that they had mentally prepared for the moment when it would happen but the reality of the situation still beat down upon them no matter how much they saw death happen around them.

Ichigo relaxed his scowl and took a deep breath in. "No."

His eyes slowly trailed to the ground and wandered around his feet before turning back up to Urahara's. "Just relay my condolences…I was there for both so…going to their funeral just doesn't feel right…"

"What about you, Inoue-san?"

"I think…I'll do the same." She seemed to be hesitating at first but, she eventually gave the answer she had wanted to give.

"I see." Urahara made no indication of his own opinion as he made the mental note to relay their messages.

"So, is she already awake?" Ichigo asked.

"Ah, you actually just missed her by a couple of moments." Urahara's face returned to his usual goofy grin. "She should be following the shortest route to the school so you can probably catch up to her before she makes it there."

With a smile on his face, Ichigo immediately turned around to run down the path Urahara had mentioned. Orihime gave a quick bow and uttered a 'thank you' before following Ichigo.

As the two of them ran, turning a couple of corners, they eventually saw a silver-haired girl walking in an identical school uniform to Orihime's. As the distance between them closed, they called out.

"Shizuku!"

* * *

Nothing else mattered. At the end of the grueling battle, all that was left was the two charging at each other with their final attacks at the ready. Two Getsugas roared from two blades as the two took their first steps in their charges.

With the second step, the distance was closed to near zero and the two blades clashed into each other, releasing great black Getsugas that pierced into that black sky. The two waves violently crashed into each other.

As the two Getsuga's collided and fell apart, Shizuku felt her fingers and muscles begin to loosen, leaving her arms immobile. However, Ichigo's blade had not stopped moving. Unlike Shizuku's, the force of Ichigo's attack had yet to be fully cancelled out.

"Ah…" That was all Shizuku could find the strength to utter as the blade was knocked from her hands.

Without a moment of hesitation, Ichigo reached for the hilt of the now flying blade.

Seeing this, a smile of resignation made its way to Shizuku's face. _That's it. Finish it off. At least let me die by-_

The two blades pierced through Shizuku in her abdomen and sternum.

She felt her reiatsu finally leaking out and falling away and she started to fall forward, only to be caught by Ichigo.

 _What…I'm…not dead…?_

She was sure her body would fall apart or die from the stab wounds but she was still alive. Her body's pain had stopped increasing after she had been run through.

"The Binding Chain and the Soul Sleep…I think that's what Ishida called them." Ichigo spoke to the still half-awake Shizuku. "Apparently, piercing through them seals away a shinigami's powers…it wasn't the best solution and there was the chance that it would fail but it was the most available one."

"You…sealed away my shinigami powers to cut off Banshōkyō's reiatsu…"

"I did say that I would somehow save you. So, just rest. Inoue will take care of everything else." That was the last she heard as her consciousness faded to black.

* * *

The morning breeze brushed around Shizuku as she slowly walked towards the school building. She was alive and she was walking to school. Just under 72 hours before, she would have never even entertained the possibility yet here she was.

Apparently, Urahara had worked some magic to allow her to live a normal life as a human high school girl. As for her living arrangements, she would be staying at Urahara's shop until she could find something more suitable.

Regardless of what her circumstances were, she had been given a chance to live. She was no longer teetering on the edge of death.

But despite that fact, she no longer knew what to do. Perhaps she could just live a normal school life filled with all of the regular ups and downs that came with it. Perhaps she could search for Mamoru's soul which had likely returned to the cycle of reincarnation and was born again as another human being on the plane of the living. Even if he would likely have forgotten her, she could still teach him to live as he had tried to do for her.

"Shizuku!" Two voices called out her name from behind. Shizuku turned around to see Ichigo and Orihime running to her with smiles planted on her faces.

She raised her hand high above her hand and waved towards them with a brilliant smile on her face. "Hi, guys!"

While Shizuku did not know what path to walk forward on, it was fine. The infinite futures and paths that stretched before her were vast. But, she would always have some support one way or another.

The future was smiling upon her. In the end, that was all she needed.

* * *

 **A/N: And it's finally over. With that, this little ToAru LN-Style Bleach fic comes to its nice, clean end. And in time for the the final chapter of Bleach. Man, I can't believe the series is actually coming to an end.**

 **To all those who stuck with me through this fic, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it.**

 **With that, I once again lay down my pen. Till next time~**


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